A Marauder Story: My Real Family
by Blacks Bitch
Summary: Characters: Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Regulus Black , Mr and Mrs Black, Mr and Mrs Potter, Mr and Mrs Pettigrew, Cecelia MWPPera This story is taking place in the time Sirius decides he wants to leave home for good
1. Default Chapter

A Marauder story: My Real Family

::Chapter One::

Summer holidays… the time you can empty your mind and finally have enough time to do the things you wanted to do all year.

It is the time you stay at your friends' places and enjoy the careless days of the summer.

It's the time you have fun and enjoy your days home…

Too bad that doesn't count for all of us…

For example:

"SIRIUS!"

The boy, Sirius, who sat against the wall on his bed and was holding an enchanted, electric guitar, sighed irritated. "WHAT?!"

"STOP RAGGING ON THAT FOOLISH MUGGLE THING! NOW!"

He threw the guitar aggressively aside, muttering: "Yeah, and you stop shrieking like a hag!"

He lay down on the bed, arms folded in his neck, observing the ceiling of his four poster.

Sirius was tall, had jet black, half long hair and blue eyes. He'd just turned sixteen (though you'd say he was at least twenty) and the guitar was his best friend's, James, birthday gift to him. It was enchanted so it didn't need electricity. Sirius was very pleased with it…

His parents weren't. They kept barking at him to stop 'ragging' on it, as they barked about everything he did that didn't please them… which seemed to be everything.

As he stared absentmindedly onto the ceiling, he drifted away in thoughts. He thought about James and his home situation. James' parents were kind, hospitable, friendly, unprejudiced and everything real parents should be. In other words; everything Sirius' parents would never be for him.

He jumped up and looked at his clock. It would still take half an hour before diner would be ready and he was really getting hungry. So he decided to get something now.

He left his bedroom and descended the stairs to the first floor. He went to the cellar and opened the kitchen door, to find Kreacher, their house elf, preparing diner.

Sirius completely ignored him, walked over to the table and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket.

"Diner will be ready in half an hour, young master Black. Mistress doesn't like it if you eat just before dinner." Kreacher said unfriendly.

Sirius didn't bother to look up, as he cleaned his apple on his sleeve and said: "If I'd be listening to _her_ jabbering, I'd be puking disgusting curses and faking my identity by now, wouldn't I?!"

Kreacher looked extremely offended, but bowed and sulked out of the kitchen in his usual manner. Sirius snorted silently and moved The Daily Prophet, which lay on the table, towards him. Then he heard footsteps on the other side of the door.

"Oh great," He thought, "The little creek couldn't keep his ugly head shut."  
He turned some what lazily towards the door as it opened. It was, as he'd expected, Mrs Black, his mother, closely followed by Kreacher.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mrs Black said disapprovingly.

"What does it look like?" Sirius said indifferently, throwing the apple into the air and catching it again.

"Keep your big mouth shut! We'll be eating in half an hour, so _lay that back_!"  
But instead of laying the apple back, Sirius demonstratively took a bite out of it.

Mrs Black scowled, pointed her bony finger at her son and hissed: "No dinner for you tonight!"

"What?! I'm hungry! Can't I even-"

"I said _no dinner for you_! You insolent youth! Now get out of my sight!" Mrs Black yelled, looking livid.

"With pleasure!" Sirius yelled back, storming out of the kitchen, slamming the door, making the hinges creak dangerously.

"You're no son of mine!" He heard his mother yell trough the door as he went up the stairs and got to the hall, where he bumped into his younger brother, Regulus, just coming down the other stairs.

"Get out of my way!" Sirius spat, as he pushed Regulus aside. Regulus just found the wall in time to remain standing. "What have you done this time?!" He said, slightly insulted.

Sirius ignored him, opened the front door, stepped outside and also slammed this door shut with a loud bang. Breathing heavily, he stared furiously at the house for a while. It was raining and it was already pouring through his clothes, but he didn't seem to notice.

He started walking, hands in his pockets, kicking every thing aside that came across his way.

After five minutes of walking through the rain (and getting soaking wet) he arrived at a totally deserted playground. He used to come here every time he'd walked away. Most of the time to think.

As he used to do every time, he sat down on the old and weathered swing. Absentmindedly, he swung it a bit, his feet touching the ground without difficulty. He ate his apple and threw the core into the bushes.

There he sat for a while, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands buried in his hair, rain streaming over his back and face. He thought about his friends… James, Remus, Peter… all the girls at school that fancied him…

It was then, that his thoughts were interrupted by a boy's voice. It was Regulus.

"I knew I'd find you here. You're wet."

Sirius didn't bother looking up. "Sod off!"

"You're _soaking_ wet." Regulus continued.

Now Sirius did look up, looking irritated. "I know, and I don't care! Now, piss off!"

"See?! That's your problem! You just won't listen!" Regulus took the risk of sitting on the other swing, next to Sirius who was getting really pissed off, now.

"I don't need you telling me what to do or not, twit!"

Regulus stared at Sirius for a short while. "Who has to do it, then? You won't listen to mom."

Sirius snorted sarcastically. "Hm! That's weird?! Why would that be?! Let me think…Oh! Maybe because she hates me because I'm the only one being placed in a decent house and maybe because she just proclaimed to _half the neighbourhood_, that I'm no longer her son anymore! And maybe because she's got mental thoughts! Following that selfish, sick-minded freak of a Voldemort! Just like dad! And maybe because she expects me to follow in their filthy tracks! I don't think so! But, hey! They've got you for that, right?!"

"Alright!" Regulus said, a note of insult getting trough very clearly. "I get your point!

Man! You sound like an aggressive bulldog! Everyone knows Slytherin is the best house. And why did she proclaim you're no longer her son anymore?!"

Sirius was getting really pissed off now.

"Slytherin sucks! It's filled with nutcases! Mental ones! Like- Snivellus and _you_ and the rest of this _stinking family_! And how the hell do I know?!"

He got off the swing now, looking down at Regulus. "I can't help it you're _mommy's favourite boy_! Oh, and hey, you'll be the only one too, soon!"

It was Regulus who got angry now. Rage was building up inside of him. He got of the swing too, facing his brother. He was still a lot smaller, but his anger didn't stop him and he yelled:

"Us Slytherins are greater than you Gryffindorks will _ever_ be! Mom and dad are right about you! You _are_ a disgrace to our family!"

"GOOD!" Sirius roared, grabbing Regulus' arms and pulling him aside. "Now, _FUCK OFF_!"

Regulus scowled and pulled himself lose.

"I hate you!" He whispered angrily and he ran back home.


	2. Chapter Two::

::Chapter Two::

Sirius watched Regulus run off, glad the little twit finally went away. "Idiot." He muttered angrily, leaning against the swing stand. As usual, his mind drifted off again. This time it was Hogwarts he thought about. About how he would give anything to be there instead of here. But the thing he really missed the most and where his thoughts always ended up, were his friend. They were always able to think up things to amuse him, to make him laugh, to make him feel happy. But at the moment he wasn't amused or happy at all. So he decided he would write James a letter as soon as he got home. Home… his family and that bloody house meant nothing to him. Hogwarts was his real home. Where he belongs. With his friends.

With these thought swirling in his head, he strolled his way back to Grimmauld Place.

It looked as if he had just jumped into a lake, so when he entered, he went upstairs to take a bath and get dry clothes. He heard the sound of cutlery from down the kitchen, but he didn't bather telling them he was home again. He was still angry anyway. So he went upstairs and into his room. He made up his mind and decided to write James' letter first. He hastily got quill, waterproof ink and parchment and started scribbling a letter. Water from his hair and face, kept dripping on the parchment, but the blotching on the still wet ink, did not make the letter unreadable. When he had finished it, he turned to the window sill, where a dark, Short-Eared owl was cleaning it's feathers.

"Oi, Colonel! I've got work for you."

The owl, being called Colonel Snobby, hopped from the window sill on the desk. Sirius attached the letter to it's paw.

"James place. You know where it is, right? 'Course you do."

But instead of flying off, he did nothing but hop over the desk and stopped in front of the edge.

"What?" Sirius said frowning.

Colonel Snobby nibbled on the handle of the top drawer of the desk. Sirius sighed.

"Okay. But no more than two! You'll get more if you return before midnight." He opened the drawer and got 2 Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans out of it. He gave them to Colonel Snobby, who ate them and hooted gratefully. Sirius opened the window.

"Now go, you. And bring back an answer, will you? 'Course you will."

Colonel Snobby hopped from the desk, onto the window-sill again and was ready to take flight.

"Colonel-"

The owl turned around to face his owner once more. Sirius stroke him over his soft feathers and said silently: "Be careful, okay?"

Colonel Snobby hooted and finally took off.

It was still raining and Colonel Snobby soon disappeared in the blurred outlines of London.

Sirius got some trousers and the shirt Remus sent him for his birthday and started towards the bathroom.

Once inside, he got undressed, threw his wet clothes on the floor and turned the tap from the bath open. For the tap was enchanted, the bath was filled within ten seconds. Sirius stepped in and lowered himself slowly into the damping water. The wet closes had been cold so the warm water felt really good and he calmed down a bit. He let his whole body, including his head, sink to the bottom of the bathtub.

The underwater silence was relaxing. He felt totally isolated from the world around him. Isolated from his family. Isolated from his problems. He wished it could be as silence as this in his miserable life forever. It felt good. He lay there for a while until his lungs begged fir oxygen. He got up again, sitting straight up. He leaned his elbows on his knees and closed his hands around his face. 'I've gotta get out of here.' He thought, moving his hands threw his hair, removing it out of his face. 'I've gotta get out.'


	3. Chapter Three::

::Chapter Three::

Some were away from London, in a quiet, nice looking village, a teenage boy with untidy, black hair, sat in his room. He was reading a book, every now and then turning the page and taking a bite of a piece of carrot cake.

He was suddenly disturbed by a ticking noise, coming from the window. He looked up and saw a dark owl on the other side of the glass. He recognised it immediately, jumped up, opened the window and let the owl in.

"Colonel!"

The owl landed on James' shoulder and held out his leg, a letter attached to it.

"Is our Padfoot in trouble again, huh?" James said to the owl, taking the piece of parchment off and unrolled it. He sat down, his eyes fixed on the piece of parchment, reading his best friend's letter.

_Prongs,_

_How's your holiday? Mine's the same as always._

_That horrible, shrewish bitch, that happened to be my mother, keeps shrieking and screaming at me! Not that I bloody care._

"I _told_ you he was in trouble." James said, passing a piece of carrot cake to the owl, which plugged it apart and ate it. James read on.

_Apart from that, I'm as bored as the shampoo in Snivellus cupboard. When did you say I could come over? Let it be quick, will you? I can't stand another day in this hovel!_

_Answer me as quick as possible, Colonel Snobby could do with some exercise. _

_As you can see, he's getting fat. Fed him too many chocolate frogs, I guess…_

_**WRITE ME, OK?!**_

_Your most noble and loyal and handsome and blahdyblah friend,_

_**Padfoot**_

_P.S. I bought a new pet._

When James had finished reading, he strode across the room towards the door. He entered the first landing, hurried down the stairs and opened the living room door.

"Mum?"

Mrs Potter, James' mother, looked up from her book. "Hm?"

James remained in the doorway, leaning on the handle. "Can Sirius come over?"

"When, dear?"

"Er- tomorrow?" James said.

"Yeah sure. But not too early, please. I've got a day off tomorrow and-"

"No, mum. Okay, mum. Thanks, mum." he hastily flashed a grateful smile while closing the door again. He hurried upstairs and bumped into his father.

"Oopsy. Sorry, I'm in a hurry!" And he disappeared into his room.

Mr Potter calmly walked down the stairs and entered the living room. He sat down.

"Why's James suddenly in such a hurry?" he asked his wife.

"Oh, he just asked if Sirius could come over." She answered.

"Oh, that explains." Mr Potter said.

The both laughed.

James, now in his room, had grabbed his ink, an blank piece of parchment and a quill and had already started writing a letter back.

When he had finished it, he rolled the letter up.

"I'm sorry. Seems you can't rest here for the night, Colonel." he said, attaching the roll to Colonel Snobby's leg.

"It sounds like he _really_ wants to get out of there as soon as possible."

James let the owl to the window where it took flight. He closed the window and went downstairs again to get something to drink.

Sirius was combing his hair, standing in front of the mirror. He swayed it backwards and into model again. Laying his comb down, he looked at his clock. 11 PM.

He walked over to the window to look outside to see if he could catch a glimpse of Colonel Snobby yet, but there was nothing to be seen. It was getting dark and it was still raining.

'He'll make it.' Sirius thought. 'Maybe it's best if I start packing.'

He got a big bag from under his bed and started to pack some clothes and other stuff he found necessary to take with him.

11:30 PM. Sirius looked out of the window again. Still no sign of an owl.

He walked over to a plant which stood next to his closet and moved it aside.

"Hi."

Behind the plant stood an old aquarium. Its contents were a bit of sand, a large brick and a green iguana.

Sirius liked animals. He always felt he could get along better with animals than with humans.

Though he wasn't allowed to have another pet next to his owl, he had bought the iguana in a Muggle pet shop, when he had been wandering in London which he did a lot these days.

He had called the reptile Major Muggle. It was quite young, so it was still easy to hide him. Sirius took him out of his basin and sat down in a chair, stroking its leather-like.

"I will have to put you in my bag, if you want to come with me. But don't worry. It won't be for long."

Then, finally, he heard a ticking noise out of the direction of the window. Sirius hastily placed Major Muggle in his neck, walked over to the window and opened it.

Colonel Snobby landed on the desk and shook heavily which made water fly all around the room. Naturally, Sirius was splattered all over.

"Thanks a bunch, Colonel! I've just taken a bath, you moron!"

But the letter attached to Colonel's leg, made it all up.

"Good boy." He stroked him over his wet feathers and took the letter off. Then he opened the drawer filled with candy, saying: "Go ahead, laddy. You deserved it."

At those words, Colonel duck into the drawer and happily nibbled on the candies.

Sirius sat down at his desk, his attention on the letter.

_My best and most patient –ahum- and sweetest –ahum- and most lucky –AHUM- Petfood,_

_Holiday's fine, thanks._

_She keeps screaming, doesn't she?! Your mummy. Must be a world record… screaming all summer and not losing her voice._

"Yeah, it sure is." Sirius muttered darkly.

_HAHA! Ah, that gives you a bit of practise if you scream back. Now, I do expect you to be the one that cheers the loudest next Quidditch match, got that?_

_Nah, I'll get you out of there. Use floopowder. Tomorrow afternoon the first thing you'll do, is pack your stuff and come over here._

_Colonel Snobby is indeed getting fat! You spoil him too much. But I don't blame you. When you're bored, what else should you do but wanking and feeding chocolate to your owl, right? Tehe. _

_Well, see you tomorrow._

_Ciao,_

_**Prongs**_

After finishing reading the letter, Sirius thought for a moment.

He looked at his clock once again. It was a quarter to twelve. James' parents would still be up, no doubt James too. SO he decided to go there straight away. He would take the risk.

He pulled Major Muggle of his shoulder and carefully lay him in his bag.

"There you go." He quickly looked around, opening another drawer and took out a plastic, transparent box, containing crickets. He put that also into the bag, next to Major.

"Almost forgot your food there, lad." He said, stroking Major once more, before closing the bag. He carefully pulled the bag over his shoulder and looked at Colonel Snobby.

"Hey. Just rest here, okay? I'll leave the window open, so you can come whenever you want to."

Colonel just hooted softly.

"Alright, then. I'm off. We'll see you there."

He left his room and went down into the kitchen, which was, to Sirius' great relive, totally deserted. He strode over to the fire place. Then he grabbed a hand full of floopowder, stepped into fire place and said: "The Potters!"

And with a loud crack, he disappeared, leaving the kitchen deserted once again.


	4. Chapter Four::

::Chapter Four::

Sirius came to a halt, bumped his head into something hard, tripped and fell into the Potter's living room. Mr and Mrs Potter, who sat in the same room, watched Sirius. He was always looking so tidy, but now he was rather dusty. Irritably he stood up and started to dust off his clothes. He looked up.  
"Hi." He said and turned to his clothes again.

Mrs Potter smiled. "Hello Sirius. Nice to see you. But I thought you would come tomorrow?"  
Sirius looked up again. "Yes, but- I felt like escaping to the nicest parents in the world a bit earlier." He said, flashing a dazzling smile at James' mother.

Both Mr and Mrs Potter laughed.

"I'm really sorry, _Mr Black_," Mrs Potter said. "but sucking up to me usually doesn't work on me, but…" She smiled. "I can hardly send you back, can I? James is upstairs."

"Thanks." Sirius said gratefully and made his way to the hall. There he happened to meet a mirror.

"ARG!" He said, a look of utmost horror on his face. Almost panicked, he tried to get the dust that had nestled in his hair, out of it.

"At least _your_ shampoo won't be bored."

Sirius turned around, to find a smiling James halfway the stairs, leaning on the rail.

"Prongs." Sirius said smiling, swaying his hair into model again.

"That's me!" James said cheerfully, jumping down the last five steps. "I guess you missed me too much, you couldn't wait another night to see me?"

Sirius snorted. "Fat chance, mate. I was just bored and knew you'd still be up."

James smiled. "Well, it's good to see you. Come, I have to show you something."

Sirius followed James upstairs and into his room. He carefully lay his bag on James bad as he sat down on it. While James was searching for something on his desk, Sirius opened his bag, took Major Muggle out and placed him on his lap.

"There you go."

James let out a "Ha!" and turned around. "Found it- " He looked up and spotted the iguana.  
"An iguana!" He blurted out. "You have a bloody iguana!" He sat down next to Sirius, his eyes fixed enthusiastically on Major Muggle.

"Can I hold it?"  
Sirius shrugged and placed Major on James' lap.   
"His name's Major Muggle."

James smiled, stroking Major over its head. "Suits nicely with Colonel Snobby. I guess your parents don't know about him?"  
Sirius snorted. "Are you mental? I bought him in a Muggle shop. They'd mix him in diner's salad if they found him."

James laughed. "How about your guitar, then?"

Sirius hit his hand palm against his forehead. "_Shit!_ I forgot it! I left it on my bed! I have to go and get it tomorrow, then."  
"Good idea. They don't like it, right?" James said, not really expecting an answer, for he already knew it.

"No, not really." Sirius muttered darkly.  
There was a brief silence.  
"Anyway," Sirius finally said. "You wanted to show me something."

"Oh, right." James said, handing Sirius an already opened envelope. "It's from Wormtail. He's asking me on a date."

Sirius got Peter's letter out of the envelope.

_Dear Prongs,_

_How are you? Are you having fun?  
It's a bit boring without you guys.  
But hey, I asked my mum if you, Padfoot and Moony could come over and stay a while and she didn't see any problems.  
_

__

Sirius laughed. "Nope! It's clear that Peter still didn't tell his parents about our true nature."

James laughed too.

_  
Listen up, my mum bought tickets for the Quidditch World Cup. She said I could bring a friend with me. Would you like to come with me?_

"Oh my god." Sirius said. "He's taking you to the World Cup. He must _really_ fancy you!"  
"Yeah," James said, a grin across his face. "But there's one problem. Read on."  
Sirius read on.

_  
Only one problem. For we've got only one spare ticket, it's a problem if Padfoot and Moony want to come too.  
Let me know about any plans._

_Tata,  
Wormtail_

Sirius put the letter back in the envelope and handed it back to James.  
"Hm…" He said, apparently thinking of something. "That'll be no problem. I'll buy my own ticket."

"Alright. What about Moony?"

"No problem either. We'll write him and if he wants to come, I'll buy his ticket too." Sirius said, flopping backwards on the bed.   
"That's nice of you." James said, laying the letter back onto the desk. "We could meet before then in Diagon Alley, so we can get our school stuff and your tickets."

"Fine with me." Sirius yawned.

James placed Major Muggle on the bed and went to turn on his wireless radio. He gave the volume button a heavy turn, got a chessboard out of a drawer and a box of a shelf.

"Fancy a game of chess?"

Sirius jumped up. "Chess! You're dead meat, lad."

"We'll see about that, won't we?" James smirked, placing the board on the floor, while Sirius settled himself on the opposite side from where James was sitting.

James emptied the box with pawns on the board. The pieces walked to the right paces themselves.

The fact that by wizard chess the pieces destroyed and chopped off each others heads differently every time they conquered a squire, amused the two boys thoroughly.

By the time James' queen cut off Sirius' king's head and won, it was already one o'clock.  
"HA! Won! Loser! Loser!"

Before Sirius could grab him, James jumped on his bed. Sirius also got of the floor and jumped into James. They both fell onto the bed. James had the unfortunate position of laying on the edge, so within a few seconds he was pushed off by Sirius, who in his turn made himself comfortable.

"Aaah…" He said, stretching. "I think I'll sleep _here_ tonight."

"Oh no, you don't!" James stood up and tried to pull Sirius off the bed by his arm.

The door opened and Mrs Potter came into the room. She said something, but neither James nor Sirius could hear her, for the radio was still on. James walked over to it and turned it off.

"HA!" Sirius said laughing. "And victory in mine!"

James snorted. "Yeah, right. I don't want to spoil it for you, Mr Look-at-me, but I _do_ recall a chessmatch of –what?- 2 minutes ago which you _lost_!"

"James."

"Yes, mum?" James said, turned to his mother.

"Could you please do Sirius' bed? Your father and I are going to bed."

"Mu-um! It's way too early!" James complained.

"James, it's one o'clock. I want to sleep."  
"Alright, alright."

James and Sirius took a mattress from the attic and placed it in James' room.

Once they made it ready, Sirius went to the bathroom.

'How could I be so stupid by forgetting my guitar?!' He thought, as he brushed his teeth, observing himself in the mirror.

'If I have to go back anyway, I can bring along my broom too. Yeah, I think I'll do that… take my guitar and my broom and get out of there.'

When he was finished, he threw some cold water in his face, dried it and went back to James' room. He undressed and crawled into his bed.

The two boys talked and laughed for a while and after an hour they got tired and finally went to sleep.


	5. Chapter Five::

:Chapter 5:

It was around eleven 'o' clock when Sirius woke up with a start, bathing in sweat. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was. And when he did, he also recalled the dream he just woke up from. Well, he would rather call it a nightmare.

He had been at home, in the living room. All the serpents on the door handles and the furniture had come to life and were all slithering and crawling around him. He was panting. When he had turned around he had seen two gigantic serpent the size of basilisks and a smaller one, about as large as an anaconda. They were hissing and spitting poison at him. He had felt it burning. Both of the larger serpents had suddenly wrapped themselves around him, squeezing the air from his lungs and almost crushing his ribs.

He had struggled but that had made their grip even firmer and more painful.

Suddenly a horrible sight appeared; most of the smaller serpents burst open, spilling their blood all over the floor. It formed a deep, sickening pool of blood right in the middle of the living room. The snakes, still holding him, had forced him into the pool of blood, clearly with the intention to drown him. The anaconda-sized serpent had entered the pool too, circling around him hissing: "I hate you!" over and over again. Sirius himself had desperately tried to free himself from the tightening grip of the two large serpents. It was useless. He had realized his lungs would soon be filled with the blood, choking him. Then all of a sudden one of the larger serpents advanced on him, still being submerged in the pool, biting him in his right shoulder. He had tried to scream. He had felt his mouth being filled with blood, choking and killing him…

Sirius stared at the ceiling digesting this unpleasant waking. James, however, seemed to have a much more peaceful morning, for he was still asleep, breathing calmly. Sirius didn't think himself able to fall asleep again, so he decided to get out of bed. He quietly put on some clothes and left the room, leaving James asleep.

After having walked down the stairs, he went to the kitchen to get something to eat. When he entered the kitchen he found Mrs. Potter's company.

"Good morning, Sirius." She said in a friendly manner.

"Not really." He said brushing his hair out of his face.

"Didn't you sleep well?"

Sirius shrugged.

"You look pale." Mrs. Potter said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah fine, just had a bad dream 's all" He answered.

"Are you sure you alright?" She looked at him with a worried expression on her face.

"Yeah, I'm sure." To avoid a conversation, he asked: "Is there something to eat? I'm starving."

Mrs. Potter smiled. "Well, I was just about to put rolls in the oven, they'll be ready in ten minutes." She said, as she opened the door of the small oven.

"Is it okay if I take a shower, then?"

"Yes of course. Oh and drag James downstairs too, when you're ready, will you?"

He nodded and left the kitchen.

After fifteen minutes, James, Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Potter sat at the table, eating breakfast.

Sirius always liked to hear stories about Mr. Potter's youth, for he hadn't been such a good boy either.

"There was this one time, I can't remember why we did it, but I guess we just wanted to do something… original." Mr. Potter started. "We started a game of Creaothceann, which was already illegal then. You know what it is right? Creaothceann I mean." Sirius nodded.

"Good, good… well, so we were playing, and there was this huge rock falling down. Dedric, who was directly beneath this rock, had already removed his cauldron. The nutter thought we'd already finished! So this huge rock was coming down, and Dedric didn't see it, so I flew right at him, knocked him of his broom, and caught the rock with my own cauldron."

"OUCH!" Sirius and James said together, screwing up their faces.

"Yeah, for the both of us, I threw him of his broom at the height of -what- 20 feet?" He laughed. "And I had a headache that lasted for a month!"

They all laughed.

When they had finished they cleared the table and James and Sirius went upstairs. Sirius waited for James to be finished in the bathroom, for they were about to go swimming in the lake nearby. The sun was shining again and it was very hot outside. Perfect weather for swimming.

Within half an hour, they were on their way to the lake, whilst talking and laughing.

When they arrived at the large lawn next to the lake, it became obvious that they weren't the only ones fancying a swim. Loads of Muggle families and groups of boys and girls were enjoying themselves by lying in the grass, swimming, or otherwise playing games. The two boys picked a spot underneath a large tree, and tossed their bags aside.

When they took of their clothes, already wearing their swimming pants, they received a lot of gasps and "look at those guys" from girls nearby.

James and Sirius, used to the female attention, walked over to the water. James waved at the girls, asking if they'd like to swim with them. Sirius, however, ignored them, looking at James with a pitiful look on his face.

"James, lad, grow up, will ya! I mean…" He looked at the girls, ho went slightly pink and giggled, to Sirius' opinion, annoyingly.

"Look at them" He continued. "They're -what- _thirteen_?

"At least I don't fall for forty year old women…" James muttered.

Sirius snorted. "I am so _not _falling for forty-ers! At least _I_ don't fall for third years."  
"Oh no?" James said. "I'll bet you anything that you'll one day end up with a girl that's at least twenty years younger than you!" James laughed.

"Hey! Don't pick it out on me that _you'll _end up as a lonely pedophile, because shagging children is _illegal_!" Sirius laughed even harder.

"Oh go fuck yourself, you!" James said, as they had reached the water, pushing Sirius in.

Sirius soon appeared above the surface again, and pulled James in too.

"Come on, who gets to the other shore first."

And they both swam to the other shore as fast as they could. Before they got there (Sirius was ahead) James yelled: "who gets there last, is a dungbomb and has to eat Wormtail's socks!" Then he pulled on Sirius' leg, making him go slower, and he caught up with him, reaching to shore first.

"HA! WON!" He bellowed, doing a victory dance in the water.

"No you haven't! You disgusting little cheater!" Sirius said, playfully pushing James' head underwater.

They stayed at the lake all day, eating the lunch that they brought with them. James had invited some girls to have lunch with them.

"So." The blonde girl said. "Where are you from?"

"Oh, nearby. Little over a mile from here." James said.

"And you?" The girl turned to Sirius, going a bit red in the face.

"Hm? Oh, London." He answered, not showing much appreciation for her interest.

"London!" She blurted out! "Oh I've always wanted to go there! Can't I come and stay at your place?" She asked, not really meaning it.

Sirius smiled wearily. "I don't think you'd get along with my parents, gal."

"Oh I bet they're nice people." The girl said enthusiastically.

"Everything but…" He muttered darkly. Then he suddenly said: "Anyway, enough family rubbish, are there any chicken sandwiches left?"

They ate their lunch and chatted for a while. Sometimes the girls had conversations about typical Muggle things, which neither James nor Sirius had ever heard of. Like blow-dryers. Whenever the girls asked them something about things they knew nothing about, they just said 'yes', or, 'that's right, followed by snorts, which the girls in their turn didn't understand.

It was about four 'o' clock when one of the girls suggested to the other to play a game of football, before they would leave. When the girls had been playing for five minutes, (James and Sirius had been watching, trying to make sense out of it.) they asked if Sirius and James wanted to join them. Not knowing they were dealing with two boys that knew as much about football as about blow-dryers.

James and Sirius looked at each other. Their insatiable urge to experience new things made them both agree on giving it a try.

It took only five minutes for Sirius to burst out laughing as James had automatically caught the ball with his Quidditch reflexes, making the girls scream: "HANDS!"

So they placed James in the goal. It was now Sirius' turn, as the girls made him take a penalty. He kept kicking it the wrong way, and _way_ too hard, as well.

"No no no!" One of the girls said, moving over to him. "Man, you two play so badly, it looks like you've never even _seen_ it before.

Sirius smiled. "I guess I'm not into sports that much." He winked. The girl turned red in her face and stuttered: "Well -er- w-why don't you -er- try it a-again." Then, smiling broadly, she turned around and went back to her position. Sirius tried, and kicked it over and over again, but there wasn't any improvement in the process, so it was now James' turn to laugh. Then, out of frustration, Sirius gave the ball a very hard kick, making it fly into the bushes, out of sight.

"Oops." He said laconically.

The girls sighed hopelessly behind his back. James walked over to them.

"Sorry girls, I think my friend here is a bit too aggressive an impatient for this."

He gave Sirius an overly dramatic, encouraging tap on his shoulder.

"Oh never mind, we're leaving anyway." A brown-haired girl walked over to them, as the other girls went to get their stuff.

The blonde girl looked over her shoulder to Sirius. When she saw he was watching, she quickly averted her gaze.

"Oh don't mind her." The brown-haired girl said. "She falls for every guy…"

"Not that _you're_ like any other guy!" She added quickly. "Neither are you!" She also added nervously, turning to James. But- well- I've gotta go. Bye!" And she ran of to meet the others. James and Sirius looked at each other and once again, burst out laughing.


	6. Chapter Six::

:Chapter Six:

"We're home!" James said loudly, as he and Sirius got inside and closed the door.

"Okay!" Mrs Potter answered back from the kitchen. "Could you two make the table? Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

"Alright." James said and, followed by Sirius, he went into the living room.

That evening they ate soup. As usual, there was a lot of chatter and laughter.

"So, how was it at the lake? Had fun?" Mr Potter asked.

"Yeah, we did." James said. "Sirius is such a lousy swimmer! I won when we-"

"And that'll be because you _cheated_!" Sirius interrupted him, taking a sip of his soup.

"I didn't cheat…"

"Oh, you call _hanging on one's leg_ fair?" Sirius blurted out.

"You just can't admit your defeat…"

"You're so full of it!" Sirius said unbelievably.

James just laughed.

"But, if you find lying fair…" Sirius said. He turned to Mr Potter. "James shagged ten girls in thirty minutes."

"Sirius!" Mrs Potter said disapprovingly.

"Sorry ma'am."

There was a brief silence. Then Mr Potter turned to James and asked;

"Did you?"

Sirius snorted into his soup.

After dinner, James and Sirius went upstairs again.

"Let's write the letters to Moony and Worm." Sirius suggested as they entered James' room and tossed themselves onto James' bed.

And so they did. First they wrote Peter's letter.

_Wormtail,_

_James thanks you for the ticket. We agreed that I, Padfoot, will buy Moony's and my own next week in Diagon Alley. Would be nice if we could meet there for a day of fun._

_We'll be going there next Wednesday, around eleven o'clock. Meet us at the owl shop._

_We'll see you there._

_Cheers,_

_Prongs and Padfoot_

After finishing it, Sirius said: "You can do Moony's letter yourself, right?" He moved over to his own mattress.

"Hmhm." James said frowning, as he watched Sirius take a roll of parchment out of his bag. "Who are _you_ going to write?" He asked."

"No one of importance…" Sirius muttered, clearly not intending to tell him.

So James just started on Remus' letter.

_  
Dear __Mr Moony,_

_With great pains in our hearts, we must inform you, that you have been expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for being too rebellious and never making your homework!  
_

_  
Just kidding! How are you, pal? I'm fine.  
Padfoot ran off again. He's here now. Don't worry, he's perfectly fine.  
Peter's mum bought Peter tickets for the Quidditch Final. England vs Japan. He asked me to come with him. Now, Padfoot here will buy his own ticket and offered (very nice indeed) to buy your ticket too. Can we meet you on Wednesdays in Diagon? Eleven o'clock outside the owl store. Worm will be coming too.  
_

_You know, Sirius is sitting on his own bed now. He's writing a letter, but he wouldn't say to whom… Acting all mysterious about it…  
But, hey. We'll find out anyway, right?  
Well, let us know if you can come.  
_

_Cheers,_

_Prongs and Petfood_

When he was finished, Sirius had finished his letter too.  
"I'll send these straight away." James said as he stood up and waved the letters above his head. "I believe both Maggie and what's-his-name are still here."  
As James left the room, Sirius folded his letter and put it in his bag.

They had let Mayor Muggle walk around in the bedroom and he now appeared from under James' bed. Sirius picked him up and flopped stretched out on his comfortable mattress and placed his pet on his chest.  
He didn't feel like going home, but he had to. He wanted that guitar and he needed his broom.

"And you will stay here with Uncle James, won't you?" Sirius said, teasing Mayor Muggle by tickling him on his nose with his finger. "'Course you will."

After a few minutes James returned again. Sirius picked Mayor Muggle off him and gave him to James.

"I'm going to get the guitar and my broom, alright?"

"Oh, sure." James said, taking Mayor over from Sirius. "I'll come with you."  
"No," Sirius said curtly "It's best if you stay here."  
"No, I insist." James said, already making a move of leaving. "I'm com-"

"No, Prongs! You'll stay here!" Sirius says, sounding very seriously.

James looked at his friends face. "Okay, okay…"  
"_Promise_ me you won't come after me." Sirius said, scared James actually would.  
"Okay. Easy. I promise. How long will it take?"  
Sirius shrugged. "Dunno. Al least not long. Let's say…five minutes."  
"Alright then."  
"Oh, and could you feed Major?" Sirius asked, making his way to the door.  
"What does it eat?" James asked, looking at the animal, as if it would give a hint.  
Sirius grinned. "It's in my bag. I'm off." And he opened the door, while James reached for Sirius' bag.  
When Sirius had closed the door and crossed half the landing, he heard James say loudly; "EW! Crickets! Mayor, you're a disgusting little freak!"

Sirius laughed and went downstairs. He went into the living room, where he met Mrs Potter.

"I have to fetch some stuff from home. I'll be right back." He said, walking over to the fireplace, taking some floo powder out of the pot into his hand.

"Alright." Mrs Potter said as she nodded him goodbye.  
Sirius stepped into the fire place and dropped the floo powder into the ashes under his feet and said: "Number Twelve Grimmauld Place!" And he disappeared into thin air with a loud crack.

The kitchen was empty. Sirius crossed it and reached the door. As he quietly went out of the cellar, and walked passed the closed living room door, he heard there were people inside.

'Perfect.' He thought, 'They don't even have to know I've been here.'

He went upstairs and into his room. When he got there, he stopped dead.  
It wasn't there.

Hoping that Kreacher had moved it when cleaning the bed, Sirius desperately looked around the room, checking every corner, but he feared the worst. He combed a frustrated hand through his hair as he checked the room again, but there was no guitar.  
'Regulus!' He thought, leaving his room. He hurried over to his brother's bedroom and swung the door open.

"Where-" he started, but as he entered the room, he found it was empty. He looked around, desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of his guitar, but it just wasn't there either.  
He was getting angry. They had been in his room, nosing in his stuff, without his permission. His anger was building up rapidly as he stormed down the stairs, swung the door open and burst into the living room.

"Where is it!"  
Both his parents and his brother were inside. When Sirius had burst in, Mrs Black had jumped up.

"Where have you been!" She screeched.  
But Sirius didn't answer.  
"I _asked_ you something!" He said loudly. "Where is it!"

"What are you talking about, man?" Regulus said, sounding as if he didn't know anything, but Sirius looked right through him.  
"It was you, wasn't!" Sirius said, a look of contempt on his face. "You went into my room and got my guitar! Now, where is it!" He was getting really angry now.

"There is no necessary for you to know." Mr Black's cold voice said.

As his father said that, a malicious smile appeared on Regulus' face.

Sirius shot him a nasty look. Then he said;

"Fine. If you won't tell me… KREACHER!"

Within five seconds, Kreacher, their house elf, came hurrying into the room. He looked up at Sirius, wearing a look of great dislike on his ugly face.

"Yes, young _master_ Black?"  
Sirius, knowing house elves always have to tell the truth, looked down at the creature and said: "I know they took my guitar. Where is it!"

"Gone…" Kreacher said wickedly.

"What do you mean _gone_!" Sirius snapped, "What did they do with it!"

Suddenly a mad gleam spread across Kreacher's face.

"Burned it… They burned it."

The truth hit Sirius hard. Burned it?... He had never felt as angry as he did at this very moment. His rage was crossing its control line and hate spread through his whole being like venom.

"Sick minded fucks-" He hissed dangerously through gritted teeth.

"That guitar was a gift of my _best_ _friend_! _You're all bloody sick in your minds!_"

As Mrs Black burst into shouting, her husband had jumped up and started towards Sirius. As he reached him, he grabbed his son painfully in the back of his neck. Sirius let out a dog like moan of pain. Mr Black didn't let go but hissed threateningly in Sirius' ear;

"You've brought enough shame to this family already! If you won't start listening and stop bringing Muggle things in this house, you'll be in more trouble than in your worst nightmare!"

Sirius wasn't that easily intimidated. He felt no fear whatsoever. Only anger.  
"I don't care! I'd rather be _dead _than be a part of this wicked family!" Sirius hissed venomously.

"ENOUGH!" Mr Black roared, while firming his grip.  
Sirius gasped. It really hurt.  
"I'm _sick_ of that rebellious behavior of yours!" Mr Black continued, "From now on you'll _listen_ to what we tell you!"

He dragged Sirius towards the door.

"Now you will go up to your room and get all that _disgraceful_ Muggle stuff out of there! I want you back here in two minutes! I'll show you what we should have done years ago! Show you some _blood pride_!" Then he pushed his son forward onto the landing, letting go of his neck.  
Sirius found his balance on the banister. Massaging his neck, he turned around.  
"Accept it!" He yelled, "I will _never_ be like you,_ god damnit_!"

"_TWO MINUTES!_"

From the moment Sirius had heard Kreacher say the words 'burned', something had snapped inside of him. Rage blinding him, he pulled his trunk from under his bed and without thinking started packing all the stuff that was valuable to him. He wouldn't stay a second longer.

He hadn't heard Regulus come up the stairs. Neither had he heard him enter his room…  
"What do you think you're doing?" Regulus said.

Sirius turned around.

"What does it _look_ like, you little piece of _shit_!" He said while throwing his clothes in his trunk.  
Regulus observed his brother for a while.

"Mum and dad won't allow you to run off again, I'm telling you."

That wasn't a smart move. Sirius drew his wand, crossed the room in two strides and placed the tip of his wand against Regulus' temple.  
"Do I look like I give a damn!" He said threateningly.  
Sirius' sudden action had scared Regulus. He hastily took a step aside, removing his temple away from his brother's wand.

"You can't do magic outside school! Y-you wouldn't-"

"_Try me_!" Sirius roared, hitting his wand against Regulus temple again.  
Regulus didn't feel like risking his life for some words to insult his brother, so he backed off.  
"You're a freak!" He whispered. Then he hurried to his room and quickly closed the door behind him.

"Open your eyes, Regulus!" Sirius called after him. "Then you'll see who the real freaks are!"

At this moment Sirius felt nothing but despise and rage, but deep down, somewhere inside of him, he did hope that one day Regulus would see who were the ones that were wrong. But he feared that by the time he would, it would already be too late.

Sirius pulled his drawers open and threw all he wanted to take with him, into his trunk.

Panting slightly, he hastily looked around the room to check if he had everything he couldn't miss. He closed his trunk, started towards the door, grabbed his broom from behind it and left the room.

He would go down into the kitchen as fast as he could. With or without magic, he had to get out.

James looked at his watch. Sirius had left ten minutes ago and still wasn't back.

'Maybe he's downstairs.' James thought as he left his room and went down the stairs and entered the living room.

His mother was the only one inside.

"Isn't he back yet?" James asked.  
"Not yet." His mother answered while looking at him.

"It's taking too long, mum." James said, a note of worry in his voice. "Something's wrong."

Mrs Potter wasn't comfortable about it either, but she had to try to calm James down, so she walked over to her son.

"Sirius is a strong boy," She said, trying to tidy James' hair. "You know how he is. If he says he's coming back, he is coming back."

"What if his parents won't let him?"

Mrs Potter smiled. "He doesn't really listen to anyone, does he? You think he'll let his _parents_ stop him?"

James shrugged. "I've never met them. I don't know how far they're willing to go to keep him there." He said, a darkened expression on his face.

Mrs Potter sighed.

"Just wait upstairs, love. I'll let you know straight away when he's back." She said, pulling James' shirt straight.

"Alright." He said as he walked to the door and left the room.

'He will be alright, James,' he thought. 'Don't worry. He's just taking a little longer, that's all…'

But something inside him told him something was terribly wrong. It just didn't feel right.

He hurried downstairs, his trunk loudly banging behind him. Mr and Mrs Black had unfortunately left the living room and were waiting for him in the hall.

Sirius tried to pass them, but his father held him back and roughly pushed him against the wall, which made Sirius drop his trunk and broom. If possible, his anger reached another higher level.

"Keep your hands of me, you-"

_Slap_.

Mrs Black's hand had hit Sirius hard in the face. She took his sudden silence to her advantage.

"Don't you think you can run off again, boy! You already went _too_ far for _too_ many times! Running off! Ignoring the rules and guidelines of this house! Failing in being a good example for your brother! Running around with those disgraceful Gryffindor friends of yours-"

By the force of his mother's hand, Sirius' face had been slammed to the side, but suddenly he jerked his face towards hers, shaking madly… eyes like a savage.

"Don't you start about my friends!" He hissed venomously.

Mrs Black knew she had hit a weak spot and was clearly not intending to be silenced by him.

"I bet they are as bad as you are!" She raised her voice some more. "All insolent, foolish peasants who don't deserve the name Wizard!"

"Shut up!" Sirius hissed.

"I bet they're all a bunch of blo-"

"SHUT _UP_!" Sirius roared. He reached for his wand, pointed it at his mother and yelled;

"Silentio!"

She had immediately fallen silent. However, Mr Black had seen Sirius reaching for his wand and had immediately drawn his. He had pointed it at Sirius, yelled a spell and made a slashing movement. Sirius dropped his wand and clutched his hand to his right shoulder. It felt like he was being cut by a blunt knife. The piercing pain went through his flesh and bones as he gasped for breathe. His father grabbed for Sirius' wand and restored Mrs Black's voice.

Then he walked over to Sirius and grabbed him by his shoulders and pushed him against the wall, which made Sirius howl in pain. His father started to speak.

"See the power of the dark arts? Don't you want that?"

"What's so glorious about destroying lives?" Sirius said through gritted teeth. "If pain is your only solution, it doesn't really prove of your so called _respect_, does it!"

_Slap_.

This time it was his father. At that moment an owl swooped in, dropped a letter in front of Mrs Black's feet and left. Sirius already knew what it was. He had been performing magic outside school. It must be a warning. But he didn't care. All he could think of at this moment was getting his wand back and getting out of here. His father had hit him hard, for Sirius felt a trickle of blood protrude form his mouth. He did a grab for his wand, but the pain in his shoulder slowed him down, so his father pushed him back once again. He grabbed Sirius painfully by the throat and forced his head against the wall, while Mrs Black pointed her wand at her son.

"One more move-" Mr Black hissed threateningly.

His father was standing very close now. He would be able to reach it, so Sirius did another grab for his wand, and this time he succeeded.

After that, it all went very fast. Trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, Sirius pushed his father backwards with all the strength he could master. Mr Black fell into his wife, so she lost her balance and dropped her wand.

Sirius, finally freed from his father's hands, threw the cabinet that stood in the hall aside, to block their way and slowing them down in following him. He grabbed his trunk and broom and stormed as fast as he could down the stairs to the kitchen.

"_Stop him!_" He heard his mother shriek. Then he heard his father roar;

"_Petrificus Totalus!_"

At that same moment, Sirius slammed the door of the kitchen shut, which made the spell hit the door instead of him. It gave a loud bang and made the door shudder. Sirius, who valued every second he had to leave, hurried to the other side of the kitchen. He heard his father curse and stomp down, as he heaved his trunk into the fire place, moaning in pain. He grabbed a hand full of floo powder, which made the pot fall to the floor. The powder covered half the kitchen floor. It was then, that Mr Black burst in, closely followed by his wife.

"Don't you dare!" He roared, pointing his wand at his son. But at the same moment Sirius spat "Good bye!", dropped the powder into the ashes and yelled; "The Potters!" and disappeared out of their sight forever.


	7. Chapter Seven::

:Chapter Seven:

Mrs Potter, who had been looking through the window turned around, as she finally heard a loud crack behind her. She watched how Sirius stepped out of the fireplace and dropped his trunk and broom to the floor. He was shaking all over. She walked over to him and led him to the couch.

Breathing uncontrollably, Sirius sat there for a while, staring blindly into the fireplace. Mrs Potter looked at him with a pitiful expression on her face. She knew that, what ever she was going to say, she had to be careful. But it was Sirius who made the first move.

"I can't-" He tried to control his breath, "I can't go back there!"

Mrs Potter, still looking at him, tried to find something to say, as her love for him took over her reasonable thinking. Then she said carefully,

"You can stay here for the rest of the summer. After that, we'll see what to do next."

She sighed. Then she saw he was bleeding.

"Sweet Merlin… what did they do to you!" She said softly.

Sirius didn't say anything, but turned his face away, still shaking with his breath out of control.

"I'll make you a cup of tea. Just stay here." Mrs Potter said, as she started towards the door and left the room. She silently closed it and walked over to the foot of stairs.

"James."

She heard a door open and in a few seconds James was downstairs.

"Is he back?" he asked hopefully.

James wanted to open the door but his mother stopped him.

"James… He's back, but…"

The look on his mother's face was enough for James to confirm his bad feelings about this whole thing.

"What happened?" he asked silently.

His mother sighed. "I don't know. He didn't tell, but he's in a bad state. Don't ask him until he starts about it himself, okay?"

James nodded and turned to the door again.

James walked in and spotted Sirius, but he saw him in a state he had never seen his best friend before. Sirius had one hand buried in his hair and was still breathing unsteadily, but that was not what shocked James. It were those eyes.

They were red… The look in Sirius eyes was cold, with a mixture of rage, pain, hate, damage, bitterness and pure loathing at the same time. It was just scary.  
It was then that James noticed the blood coming form Sirius' nose and shoulder.

"My god…" James whispered softly.  
Sirius, not taking his gaze of the fireplace, said hoarsely through gritted teeth,

"They've burned it... Those bloody mental fucks _burned_ it!"

Out of frustration, Sirius threw his wand to the other side of the room, directly followed by loud swearing as he clutched his hand to his shoulder. "Damnit!"

James, not really knowing what to do, carefully walked over to him and sat down next to him.

"What happened to your shoulder?" he asked _very_ carefully.  
To his surprise, Sirius answered quite calmly. "It's nothing. Just a scratch."

His breath was almost even again, though he was still shaking.  
"I can't go back, James. They'd literally _kill_ me."

James sighed, but didn't know what to say.

Mr Potter, coming from the garden, entered the kitchen.

"Tea so early?" He said cheerfully, kissing his wife on the cheek.

"No," she said, waving her wand, making the water in the cups warmer.

"Sirius went home to get some stuff he'd forgotten to take with him," she put the tea bags in the cups and added some sugar and milk.

"When he got back, he was all upset. I have no doubt they wanted to stop him from leaving again."

Mr Potter's cheerful face changed into a worried look. "Is he alright?"

"Not really. I'm afraid they mistreated him very badly… he's bleeding."

"Where is he?" Mr Potter asked as he started towards the kitchen door.

"In the living room." Mrs Potter said while she picked up the cups of tea of the dresser.

As they walked in, they saw Sirius and James sitting on the couch in silence.

Mr Potter sat down as his wife walked over to Sirius.

"Here you go." She said, as she reached out to give the cup to Sirius.

"Thanks. Could you leave it on the table for me, please?"

"Oh, it's not that hot. You can drink it now."

Sirius hesitated, then reached for the cup. He let out a silent moan of pain as he took it over from Mrs Potter.

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah. It's nothing." He said again as he moved the cup into the other hand, for his right arm was shaking madly under the weight of the cup. Mr Potter stood up and hurried over to Sirius.

"Being abused by your parents isn't something I call 'nothing'. Come on, let me have a look at it."

Mr Potter worked at St Mungo's, so when anyone was hurt, he would be the first to have a look at it.  
"Can you take off your shirt?" he asked, as he rolled up his own sleeves.

"Rather not." Sirius said, not wanting to think of the pain it would cost if he had to raise his arm.  
"I'll help you. I promise I'll be careful."

And so he helped Sirius out of his shirt, who screwed up his face in agony. When Mr Potter tossed the bloody shirt onto the ground, Sirius immediately dropped his arm and grabbed for his shoulder again. He let out another silent moan.

"Are you alright?" James asked silently, laying a comforting hand on Sirius' other shoulder.

Sirius just nodded.

"That looks bad… It's very deep." Mr Potter muttered, more to himself than the others. "Now, let me see… does it hurt when I do this?" he said, softly pressing on a spot on his collarbone, right above the gash. In reflex, Sirius pulled back in pain.

Mr Potter immediately let go. He looked at his wife for a split second and turned to Sirius again.

"I don't want to hurt you, Sirius. But I have to know how bad it is. Do you trust me?"

"It's not that I don't trust you," Sirius answered, sounding exhausted. "It just hurts like hell. That's all."  
Mr Potter smiled at him in a very friendly way. "Okay, this can hurt a little…" he, even more carefully, placed his fingers on the same spot as before. Then he moved his hand to some other places around the wound; asking if it hurt. Sirius could only nod, for his teeth were clenched together in pain. And to Mr Potter's great worry, Sirius kept nodding, even when he was touching way under the cut.

It took Mr Potter two minutes to confirm that the curse had affected Sirius shoulder to the half of his chest.  
"Who _did_ this to you?" Mrs Potter asked, not believing that someone could do this to a family member.

"My father," Sirius said disdainful.

"That's a nasty piece of dark arts he used on you, chap."

"No shit," Sirius muttered darkly.  
"What is it?" James asked his father, a certain note of worry in his voice.

"I don't know exactly, but it seems this gash keeps going here under the skin. It's just not visible on the surface. It's turning blue, though…" Mr Potter explained, sitting down in a chair next to his wife.

"I'm afraid I have to take you to St Mungo's, Sirius."

Sirius didn't say anything.

With Sirius calmed down a bit, Mrs Potter carefully dared to fire away the question, "So… what exactly happened?"

For a few seconds it was silent. Then Sirius spoke, sounding hoarse and exhausted.

"Well… You know I went home to get my broom and the guitar James gave me,"

Mrs Black nodded.

"I got there and couldn't find it. So I went downstairs to ask where it was. They had burned it-" Sirius was starting to get angry again, so he waited for a few seconds and continued.

"Naturally, I got mad. I got sent upstairs by my father to get my Muggle related stuff downstairs. But instead of that, I packed and wanted to leave. They wouldn't let me through. S they cursed and hit me," he snorted in a disgusted kind of way.

"They wanted to teach me some _blood-pride_. Well, I hope they'll _choke_ in their stinking blood!"

It was quiet for minute or so.

"How did you get away?" James asked.

"I guess just luck. I saw a chance to block their way. By the time they got to the kitchen, I was gone."

"Well," Mr Potter said, "We're glad you're back. But I really have to take you to the hospital now. That shoulder of yours won't heal naturally." He stood up.

Sirius stoop up too, picked his shirt of the ground and looked at James. "I'll see you, then."

"Yeah, see ya…"

Then Sirius nodded Mrs Potter goodbye, turned around and followed Mr Potter into the hall.

They used an always-active portkey and by the time they walked in one of the corridors of St Mungo's, it was already past eleven.

They went to the department of 'Curses and Grave Injuries'. When they got there, healer William Benthoff checked Sirius' injury again. He spoke with an Irish accent.

"It's good you came this fast," Mr Benthoff said, "We will be able to subside most of the pain tonight, but after that, it'll need to rest for another week."

"It has its advantages that the wound is visible," Mr Potter said looking at Sirius. "I know you well enough to know you would refuse to tell anyone. And by the time it hurts so badly you can't keep it for yourself anymore, it would be too late."

"He's right," Mr Benthoff said, "If you don't treat this in time, it can grow further and affect your organs and stuff. 'Don't want that to happen, do you?"

Sirius just sighed. Then he turned to Mr Benthoff,

"Do I have to stay here?" he didn't feel like staying.

"I'm afraid so, mate. I have to make sure your shoulder gets the rest it needs."

"I'll pick you up early in the afternoon, tomorrow." Mr Potter said, wrapping his cloak around him. "Get some rest. You need it."

That evening Sirius settled himself in a hospital bed and because of the potions and special medicines to prevent nightmares, he fell asleep quite quickly.


	8. Chapter Eight::

:Chapter Eight:

"His shoulder will be okay. He just needs to let it rest."

Sirius had woken up, but kept his eyes closed. He could hear it was Mr Benthoff that spoke.

"Of course, Mr Potter, you realize this could be a traumatizing experience. He may be a strong boy, but he's definitely not immune for emotional disorder. Keep an eye on him. We don't want him to- well, do things we'd blame ourselves for later on, because we didn't look after him."

"Of course. My wife and I will make sure he'll be out of trouble, until he's under Dumbledore's responsibility again."

"Excellent. Oh, good morning," Mr Benthoff said, as he saw Sirius open his eyes and sit up.  
"I thought you'd never wake."

Sirius gave a greeting nod to Mr Potter. He combed a hand through his hair and turned to Mr Benthoff.

"What time is it, then?"

"Twelve o'clock."

"How do you feel?" Mr Potter then asked, as Mr Benthoff checked Sirius shoulder again. Sirius immediately noticed that most of the pain had worn off.

"Never better," he answered.

Mr Potter didn't know if Sirius meant that or if he was being sarcastic. He tossed a clean shirt he'd taken from home onto Sirius bed.

"Come on. I'm taking you home."

Sirius got dressed, got his arm rested in a sling, said goodbye to Mr Benthoff and together with Mr Potter left St Mungo's.

"Calm down, James!" Mrs Potter said a bit irritated. "You know Sirius. He likes sleeping."

James had been walking up and down the living room for the last fifteen minutes. With a nervous look on his face, he sat down next to his mother.

"But what if they keep him there _forever_!"

"James! It's just his shoulder. Not his brain or anything!"

It was then than they heard sounds on the other side of the door. James jumped up and hurried to the hallway faster than a Nimbus 1500.

"Finally!" he said as he spotted his father and Sirius. Sirius smiled, but it was a rather weak smile. Mrs Potter appeared around the corner too, now. She kissed her husband and suggested to have a cup of tea. As they walked into the living room, James told Sirius that Colonel Snobby had arrived at their house last night and that he had immediately sent him off again with Sirius' 'mysterious' letter. When he saw the horror in Sirius face, he also told him he hadn't looked at the address and had given Colonel the envelope upside down.

"Mum, we're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Could you arrange portkeys?"

Mrs Potter didn't seem to think that was such a great idea.

"Wouldn't it be better to just stay here for a few days?"

James frowned, "Why?"

"Well, I think Sirius would like to take it easy for a few days."

"Oh, no. I'm fine, ma'am."

Mrs Potter looked at him with a look of disbelieve in her eyes.

"I think it's best to stay here, guys." Mr Potter said.

"Why?" Both James and Sirius blurted out.

"Mr Benthoff said your shoulder needs rest, Sirius." Mr Potter said seriously.

"But it _is_ resting, sir. I have the sling for that."

"We have to know for sure. Mr Benthoff said we had to keep an eye on you."

"What!" Sirius said in a way of great disbelieve, "And why's that? Am I not _old_ enough to take care of myself? Does Mr Benthoff think my parents didn't teach me to be independent? Believe me, they taught me well enough to take care of myself, thanks!"

Sirius hated it if people treated him as if he was still a little child.

Mr Potter sighed, "It's not that, Sirius. He thinks you will- well- make wrong decisions…"

"Like what?" Sirius asked, having no clue what Mr Potter was talking about.

"Well…" Mr Potter started, "like-" he sighed. "…commit suicide I guess."

Sirius couldn't believe his ears.

"What! Commit- _Me! _James," he suddenly turned to his friend, "What would you do if I'd kill myself?"

The thought of it made a shiver run over James' back.

"I- I don't know... I can't imagine a life without you. I'd be lost and I'd miss you more than anything…"

Sirius turned back to James' parents again, pointing a finger in James' direction.

"See? You think I would _do_ that to my friends, just because of some low sank losers who aren't even worth my time!"

It was quiet for a long time. After minutes, Sirius broke the silence.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you." He said hoarsely, looking out of the window.

"No," Mr Potter said silently, "You had the right to do so. It was foolish of us to think you would."

There was a silence again.

"I really admire your strength and courage, Sirius."

Once again Sirius snorted disgustingly.

"There's nothing courageous about running off."

"Hey," Mrs Potter said sternly, "Now you listen to me, Sirius. For goodness sake," she said, not believing how heartless Sirius' parents were. "They _hurt_ you. You did _not _run off! You decided to leave. And you made a damn well decision in that!"

Sirius looked at her. Then he looked away again, slowly shaking his head.

"Sirius…" Mrs Potter continued, more quietly now, "Courage doesn't mean you have no fears. It means fighting for the things _more important_ than your fears. And in this case it was you. Brilliant, smart, noble, good-looking Sirius. That _is_ something worth fighting for, dear. You shouldn't keep effacing yourself. You're more loved and needed than you think."

Sirius turned his face to Mrs Potter again.  
"Mum's right, you know. You're the best friend a guy could ask for!" James said, laying his hand on Sirius' shoulder.

Hearing all these things, made something if Sirius snap. He had had it with all those dark art freaks. All of them. If they wanted him, they had to come and get him. From now on, he would be fighting for the good side. Not just support. He would fight.

That day James and Sirius stayed at home. Most of the time, they lay in the garden.

There wasn't much talking, but they both felt these silences were good. They both got the chance to sort everything out. To process the heavy things that happened.

But even though they didn't say anything, they both felt that their friendship grew ever stronger.


	9. Chapter Nine::

:Chapter Nine:

It was already Wednesday when James and Sirius woke up the next morning. Today they would we meeting Peter and Remus in Diagon Alley.

James' mother had arranged a portkey and a few minutes to eleven, Sirius and James left home and within seconds, they arrived in a music shop next to Gringotts. They went outside and walked towards the owl shop. From a distance, they saw Remus was already waiting for them. When he had spotted his friends, he hurried over.

"Hi," he said enthusiastically.

"Hey." "Hi." His friends responded.

"How are you?" Remus asked, as they walked back to the owl shop to wait for Peter.

"I'm fine. How about you?" James replied.

"Oh, I'm alright. You Padfoot?"

"I'm fine," Sirius said with a friendly smile on his face. He wondered why Remus didn't ask him about his arm, but he presumed that Remus had his reasons.

James checked his watch. "And who's late again?"

"Wormtail." They all said together, followed by laughter.

"Oh my god!" James suddenly blurted out, giving Sirius an elbow in the ribs.

James had spotted Peter, who in his turn spotted them and came over.

"He brought his-" James said quietly, but there was no time for gossip. "Hi Peter. Mrs Pettigrew, Mr Pettigrew." He added friendly facing Peter… and his parents.

Remus gestured Sirius to close his mouth which had fallen open in disbelieve.

"'Lo," Peter muttered, turning red in the face.

"Hello James," Mrs Pettigrew said. "Sirius, Remus."

"Hi," Sirius said suppressing a laugh, being followed by a friendly 'hello' from Remus who was more able to keep a straight face.

"Well Peter," his mother said, "If you wait here, your father and I will get you boys something from the sweetshop."

All four of the boys smiled friendly but said nothing. When Peter's parents had disappeared inside the shop, both James and Sirius broke out.

"_Peter_!"

Peter fidgeted at his shirt. "Hey, I'm sorry guys! It's not my fault. They wanted to come with me."

"And why's that?" James asked, not believing his ears.

"Dunno… maybe they think I'll get lost in Gringotts or won't be able to deal with the money for my school stuff or something…"

Sirius had an expression on his face as if Peter just told him meat wasn't for sale anymore.

"For heaven's sake, Worm…"

"Hey, guys," Remus cut in. "They're here and we can hardly send them back home, can we? Now, listen. If you, Peter, just _ask_ your parents the money you need and some pocket money, we'll tell them that you're with us and that you're safe from any harm."

"Is he?..." James said, giving Sirius another elbow and a wink.

Sirius grinned at Peter. Ten he turned to Remus. "That'll work." he said.

At that moment, the shop door opened again and Peter's parents came out, each holding two lollypops.

"There you go," They handed them to the boys and they thanked them politely.

"Dad?..." Peter started, "Is it okay if you give me some money so I can go with them? Then you can go… -er- "

"Looking around yourselves, not having to look after him." Sirius finished, used to Peter's lack of imagination.

Mr Pettigrew looked at his wife. "Well… I don't know…"

"Don't worry. We'll enjoy ourselves," Remus said smiling.

Peter was biting his lip. "Please?"

"Oh, alright." Mr Pettigrew said, taking out his pouch. "But I do not want you to spend it only on sweets and rubbish."

"No-ho…" Peter said embarrassed, taking some money from his father.

First the four boys went to Gringotts to get their money.  
"Sirius?" Peter asked.

"Hm?"  
"What happened to your arm?"  
Sirius thought for a moment. Then he decided Peter didn't have to know what happened. He wouldn't understand, anyway.

"Oh, I injured my wrist while wanking myself off." He said seriously.  
James and Remus snorted.  
"No," Sirius finally said. "It got caught between a door when I was in a hurry."  
"Does it hurt a lot?" Peter asked.  
"Nah. At least not anymore."  
They had arrived ant the entrance and they went in. Sirius walked over to a goblin, while James let himself be helped by the one next to Sirius'. Sirius handed over his key.

"Vault number 711. I'd like to get a hundred Galleons out and could you lie this back in?"

He placed a small bag on the counter.

"That'll cost twenty Sickles if you're not coming along." The goblin said sternly.

"What!" Sirius blurted out, "Since when?"

"Last week."

Sirius sighed irritably.

"Fine. Just- take it out of my vault, then."

"What's in the bag?" James asked curiously, handing over his key.

"Pounds."

"What?"

"Muggle money, Mr Airhead. I told you at least three times already."

Remus, who was standing behind them, laughed.

When they got their money, they left for Quality Quidditch Supplies; the one shop in Diagon Alley that had as good as everything involving Quidditch. James bought some new stuff for his upcoming Quidditch year.

"What about this one?"

They were all laughing their heads off, when James was trying on all sorts of bathing-cap like hats, to prevent hair coming into your eyes whilst flying on a broom.

"Or this one?"

This time James tried a bright green one.

"Nice accessory for the Slytherin team." Sirius said through his laughter.

"The grey one suited you the best, Prongs." Remus said. "Made you look like a seal!"

They all laughed again. James lay the cap back again after a while and walked over to blackboard hanging from the wall. There was a broom magically drawn on it, fully in detail. The broom circled around it's centre. There was a text written underneath it.

_The Nimbus 1700_

_The second and newest broom in the Nimbus series._

_The handle is made from the same material as the Nimbus 1500, only this one is now treated with a coating as hard as steel._

_It's acceleration of 0 – 90 miles an hour in twelve seconds, makes it the fastest broom of all._

_**Out in November!**_

_**Order it now, here at the Quality Quidditch Supplies and get a discount of 10**_

"Dad said I'll probably get it for my birthday. If I would behave, that is." James said dreamily, looking at the circling drawing of the broom.

"Forget it, James." Remus said softly, letting out a tiny snort.

"Looks great," Peter said.

"It sure does…" James said. "Anyway. Let's pay this and get some candy."

So James paid his polishing refill kit and new gloves and they left the shop.

Once in the sweetshop, Peter bought some Berty Bott's and licorice balls, Remus bought chocolate frogs and some chemical green coloured lemonade, called DDD ( Dentist Dissuaded Drink). James also bought himself Berty Bott's and a bag of fudge. Sirius bought his usual bag of Whimpering Waffles.

"Muggles have them too, you know." He said as they had paid and left the shop, stepping into the sunlight again.

"They only have a different name. They're called treacle waffles, but they taste just as heavenly as ours. Want one?" he held the bag open to his friends.

"Better watch your diet, Padfoot," Remus said, while taking a waffle from Sirius. "Or you'll get fat."

"I don't _have_ a diet." Sirius replied.

"How come you stay this thin, anyway?" Peter said, a tone of jealousy clearly hearable in his voice. "I mean… you're eating almost the whole day but you never gain any weight!"

Sirius shrugged. "I eat the whole day, because I'm almost hungry all day. My body clearly needs all that energy."

"And what is it that makes your body so hungry for energy?" Remus asked, knowing all too well Sirius wasn't the sportive kind of guy.

"Well…" Sirius started cheekily, a broad grin spreading across his face.

"Oh, sweet Merlin! Don't say it! We don't need to know." James said disgustedly, screwing up his face.

And as they did so many times that day, they laughed.


	10. Chapter Ten::

:Chapter Ten:

"Shall we go and have a drink?" Remus suggested after a couple of hours strolling around Diagon Alley. It had become hot and they had taken off their cloaks.  
"Maybe it's a better idea if you go fetch your books. I already bought mine last week. In the mean time, I'll go and get a new uniform. I've grown out of it."

"Again!" Remus and James said together.  
"How often does that make _now_?" James blurted out. "Tenth!"

"Fifth, I guess…"  
"So you _did_ gain weight?" Peter said hopefully.  
"No, you little rat!" Sirius said, pushing Peter playfully aside. "I've grown 5 inches."  
"Too bad…" Peter said, prodding Sirius in the tummy.

Sirius, in his turn, wrapped his arm around Peter's neck, locking his head in a firm grip. "What did you say?" He said sweetly.

Peter, who laughed, said: "Too bad!"  
Sirius playfully forced Peter's head down. "I'm not letting go, until you admit you're jealous."  
"I- I'm jealous!" Peter said begging, still laughing.  
Sirius grinned but didn't let go. "Say… Sirius, you're the best."  
"You're the best!"  
"Say you'd do anything to be me."  
"I'd do anything to be you! Please, let go!"

But Sirius was enjoying this way too much to let go yet.

"Say, Sirius, mate, I love you."  
"Sirius, mate, I love you!" Peter was shaking with laughter now.  
Sirius finally let go, petting Peter on the head.

"Good boy!" He said teasingly.  
"When you two are finished with your courting, we can get our stuff." James said.

"EW!" Sirius said disgustingly, "You have a sick mind, Prongs!"  
"I know, I know. Anyway, shall we go then?"  
The others nodded and they split up.

After a while, they were all sitting around a table on the sunlit terrace of Kelly Bells, drinking tea, talking about the things they'd done in their holiday so far.

After a while Remus went to the toilet. When he came back, he found his glass had been emptied.

"Hey! Who did that?" he said, looking around t his friends' faces, locking his eyes on Sirius' angelic face.  
"What?" Sirius said innocently, pointing at James. "_He_ did it!"  
"N'oh!" James blurted out. "_I_ didn't do anything!"  
"Yes, you did." Sirius said smirking.  
"Did not."  
"Come on, guys. Who did it?" Remus said, but with an air of patience in his voice.  
"Alright, alright…" Sirius said laughing. "Peter did it."  
"Hey!" Peter squeaked. "Honestly, Remus. I didn't do it!"  
"Don't worry, Peter. I know Sirius did it." Remus said smiling.

Sirius smiled too, still amazed in how Remus was always right.  
"I'll buy you something new." He said while he stood up.  
"No, Padfoot. You really don't have to-" Remus started. But Sirius interrupted him.  
"I won't take no for an answer. Hot chocolate?"  
Remus laughed because of the serious look in his friend's face. "Yes, please."  
Sirius smiled. "That's better. With whipped cream?"  
Remus nodded, looking as if he was on the verge of purring. "You're the best, Sirius."

"You too?" Sirius asked, turning to James and Peter. "'Course you do."

And without waiting for an answer, he walked to the counter.

When Sirius had finished his drink, and putt his glass down, he asked James for the time.

"Can't tell you, mate. Forgot my watch. And besides, why do you always ask me for the time?"  
"Why not buy your own watch?..." Remus said softly.

"I've got you guys for that. Come on, what's the time?" Sirius said.

Remus checked his watch. "It's five past two."  
Sirius suddenly stood up. "Er- guys, if you could wait here for me, I'll be back in half an hour. I've gotta go somewhere."

"Where to?" James asked, looking puzzled.  
"Barber." Sirius said, pulling his bag over his shoulder.  
"Barber?" Remus repeated. "Padfoot, dearest, your hair is perfectly in model! Actually, it always is…" he added, suddenly talking more to himself than the others.

"Dead ends, luv." Sirius said, holding a string of hair between his fingers.

"But I really gotta go, now. I had to be there five minutes ago. See ya!"

And he went off.

James watched his go around a corner. Then he said: "Peter. Follow him."  
"Why?" Peter said frowning.  
"To see what he's up to, of course!"  
"The barber. He just told-"

"Oh, come _on_, Peter! To the barber! For half an hour!"

Peter shrugged.

"And besides," James continued, "he always goes to the barber, when he comes here for his books. Which means he's already been to the barber _last week_."

Peter looked at the corner where they had seen Sirius disappear out of view.

"Ah… I dunno, Prongs."  
"Does he really have to?" Remus interrupted. "Can't we just leave the poor bloke alone for a while? I mean… he's been hanging around with you for a few days now. He's someone who needs his privacy…"  
"Hey," James said, "he can tell us the truth. If he's making up things to keep us away from him, he's asking for it. Come on, Worm."  
"Okay, okay. I'm off." Peter got out of his chair and followed Sirius' trace around the corner.

Sirius looked around. 'Where is she?' he thought, checking every person's face.

"Hey,"

He heard a familiar voice say behind him, so he turned around and met the eyes of a curly, black haired girl.

"You're late." She said calmly, leaning against the wall behind her.

Sirius swayed his hair out of his face and put his hands casually into his pockets. "Or you're too early…"

"No. I was perfectly on time, unlike you."

Then she suddenly took hold of his arm and led him into a deserted alley.

Peter nervously looked around and caught sight of Sirius just disappearing around another corner. 'James was right,' he thought, 'the barber is the other way. What is he up to...?'

He approached the corner and carefully peeked around it. He saw Sirius had stopped walking. And he also saw that there was a girl with him. Peter had seen her before. She also attended Hogwarts and was a Gryffindor too. He had seen her in the Common room so now and then.

"So," Sirius said, leaning his back against the wall. "How's your holiday so far?"

The girl shrugged. "Same as always, yours?"

Sirius shrugged too. "I haven't been home much. I'm at James' now."

"James?" The girl said, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, James. My best friend. The bloke with the messed up hair…?"

"Oh, that guy." the girl replied, clearly uninterested. "Did you miss me?"  
"Nah. 'Course not." Sirius said.

The girl raised her eyebrows again.

"Well…" Sirius added, checking the girl over.  
"Maybe a little." He finally said, having a lopsided, but all the same, charming smile spreading over his face.  
The girl smiled. "That's better," she took a step closer.

Peter peaked again. The girl was standing much closer to Sirius now. He watched as the girl ran her hands over the front of Sirius' shirt, to the back of Sirius' trousers.

He also watched when Sirius ran his hand through the girls' hair, pulled her closer and kissed her. Peter went slightly pink and quickly looked away again.

'I hope James is satisfied with this.' Peter thought. And he ran off.


	11. Chapter Eleven::

:Chapter Eleven:

"And?" James asked before Peter even got the chance to sit down. "Where did he go? Tell me."

"Just-" Peter panted. "Just a second…"

"No! Tell me!" James said extremely impatiently, shaking on Peter's arm.  
"James!" Remus said, "Give the poor boy some time to breathe!"

"Okay, okay." James said, looking at Peter. "Done yet?"

"Okay," Peter started, "H-he w-was with girl."

"See!" James slammed his hand onto the table to confirm his being right. "I knew he was talking rubbish. What did they do?"

Peter turned pink again. "Just… stuff…"

"What kind of stuff?"

"Private stuff."

"Come on, Worm, what did you see?"

"Well- first they were talking and… then they touched each other."

"And?" James said, sitting at the tip of his chair now.

"Hey," Peter said darkly. "If you want to see your best friend shags someone, fine with me, but I'm not a perv like you."

Remus snorted. "Yeah, James," he said teasingly, "be reasonable."

"Okay, you're right, but- didn't they do anything _special_?"

"No-ho. As I said, they just touched, kissed and- probably thingy." Peter said, waving a funny hand.

"Hm…" James said, "Wait a sec!" He suddenly shot upright in his chair. "Did you just say they _kissed_!"

"Er- yeah? Is that something new?"

"Come _on_, Peter! Don't you know Sirius at all?" James blurted out, wondering how Peter managed to forget things about people he hang around with for six years so quickly. He turned to Remus.

Remus stared back for a while. Then he turned to Peter.  
"Are you sure you saw them _both_ kiss? I mean, really kissing _each other_?"

Peter looked puzzled.

"Yes. He started it."

Remus turned to James again, his mouth wide open. James laughed in excitement.

"Jackpot!"

"What _is_ it!" Peter interrupted their one-to-one 'secret'.

"Look," Remus said, leaning over the table towards Peter. "No matter how many girls you've seen around Sirius, he never kissed a single one of them. You see, he has these rules."

James continued Remus' conversation, pointing the things out on his fingers: "No steady relationship, no kissing and he said he'd never fall in love."

"But if he really kissed her…" Remus added. "Gentlemen, I think our dear Padfoot has finally fallen into the hands of love."

"You really think so?" James asked.

"I'm sure of it. He told me that he really liked all those other girls, but that he never really found a woman good enough to kiss… kind of romantic, really…"

"Who is she?" James asked Peter curiously, not really interested in Remus babbling about romance.

"Oh, you know her, alright." Peter said on a determined tone. "She's at Hogwarts and in Gryffindor too. Not our year, though."  
"But what does she look like?" James grew a little tired of Peter's vague answers.

"Er-" he turned pink again. "Black-"

"Guys…" Remus started again. He felt guilty towards Sirius about this. If he wanted it to be a secret, he didn't want that for nothing.

"If Sirius feels ready for it, he'll tell us who she is."

"Aren't you curious?" James asked sounding almost shocked.

"Of course I am, but-"

"Well, then." James turned to Peter once again. "Go on. You said she was black?"

"No-ho. She has black hair. Curls."

James let out an excited laugh.

"It's that sevenths year, isn't she?"

Peter presumed she was, so he nodded.

"Yeah, must be," James continued. "She's his type, alright. Dark hair, light eyes, big mouth. Older...!"

"Yes, she is." Remus confirmed. "Her name is Cecelia. He's been in contact with her since last year."

James raised an eyebrow. "How do you know all those things?"

"I watch, dear Prongs. I watch. I've seen him talk to her a couple of times and he behaves differently from his normal behavior when she's around."

"Then why didn't you tell us?"

"Because if he wanted you to know, Prongs, he would tell you himself. Now, if he comes back, we're not going to talk about any of this, alright?"

James sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Alright."

Peter nodded, fidgeting on a beer spill again.

"My parents wanted to leave at half past four." Peter said when the four were together again. They just got out of the pet shop where Sirius had bought (to James' great disgust) some more crickets for Major Muggle.

"And?" James said a bit careless.

"They wanted me to come with them. Sorry."

Sirius looked around.

"Don't they have a 'new parents' shop? Peter and I could do with some, alright."

Remus laughed. "Afraid not."

"Nah. 'Was just kidding." Sirius said, messing up Peter's hair. "But you've still got ten minutes and I still gotta get the tickets. Wanna come along?"

"Yeah, sure."

And so they went back to Quality Quidditch Supplies where Sirius bought his and Remus' tickets. After that, Remus, James and Sirius said goodbye to Peter.

"We'll contact you for the tent." James said.

"Okay."

"See ya." "Bye!" Sirius and Remus said in their turn.

Peter said bye and left with his parents.

"Shall we go for one last drink, then?" Remus suggested.

James and Sirius agreed and they left for a café. Sirius bought them all a butterbeer and soon they were chatting about all kinds of stuff.

"Sirius," Remus said after a while.

"Hm?"

"James wrote me a letter… I know what really happened to your arm." He said, sounding worried.

Sirius looked at Remus, then at James and then back to his muck.

"That's okay." he muttered.

"I'm so sorry to hear all this. I wished you had it better. I really do," Remus continued. "You deserve better."

Sirius shook his head.

"I don't believe in luck, Moony. I will just have to accept that this is my fate."

"Hey," Remus said softly, laying a hand on Sirius' good arm. "Where's the Sirius that never gives up? Where has the strong, always-for-better-possibilities-looking Padfoot's gone?"

Sirius stared at his muck a bit longer. Then he looked at Remus.

"You're right. I shouldn't whine so much."

"You're not whining. It's very logical you feel the things you're feeling at the moment. It's just that you always keep your problems to yourself, while we are _desperate_ to help you." Remus said, sorting all these sentences in the right order. He sighed.

"It's a very natural thing to feel hurt, when people are stabbing you in the back. _Especially_ when they're your _parents_."

They had eye contact for a moment.

"You're not _made_ to give in, Sirius. It just- doesn't suit you."

Sirius sighed.

"Guess you're right again, Moony. I'll go find a place of my own. Live my own life."

"And we'll help you." James said quite determined.

Sirius smiled.

"I could decorate the whole thing in my style… Everything will be blue."

"And you can eat chicken every night."

"And I can eat chicken every night." Sirius repeated James, laughing.

Then an idea popped in his mind.

"Hey, I could get Mrs Minerva back and finally keep her as a pet."

Remus laughed too, now.

"That's the spirit."

"You think she's still alive?" Sirius asked, turning to Remus.

He smiled. "I don't know. I'll ask it for you."

When it was half past five, James and Sirius said good bye to Remus and returned home themselves. After dinner, they played another game of chess (James won again) and enjoyed themselves some more by watching how Major Muggle kept irritating Colonel Snobby by snapping at his feathers and finally pulling one out.

When they were abed, they chatted some more and finally talked themselves to sleep.


	12. Chapter Twelve::

:Chapter Twelve:

That following week, looking forward to the Quidditch Word Cup, James and Sirius spent their sunny days at the lake, in the garden, in the forest nearby and when it rained, they enjoyed themselves indoors.

On Tuesday Sirius was finally allowed to take his sling off. So the next day (the day before the World Cup) the two boys grabbed their brooms and in no time they were on their way to a deserted field, some what one mile away from the village.  
When they passed some Muggle Houses, James (to Sirius' great amusement) nicked a 'For Sale' sign out of a garden and planted it back in some one else's garden.

Within thirty minutes, they had reached the field and were up in the air. First, Sirius let James catch some rocks which he threw at him. James caught every single one of them with excellent moves, except for one, but that was because Sirius tossed that one over his shoulder to foul James.

It was then, that James soared towards the ground, picked some grass from it, flew back to Sirius and dropped the grass in his best friend's hair.  
"Hey!" Sirius complained loudly, immediately reaching for his hair.

"Not the hair!" James mouthed with his 'Mr Hand', as Sirius said it at exactly the same time.

"Go-" Sirius started, messing up James badly, "-fuck yourself!"  
"Nah, not now." James said laughing. "But let's see what you make out of catch practice."

Sirius swayed his hair out of his eyes and into model again and shrugged.

"Fine with me."

So now it was James' turn to throw the rocks for Sirius to catch. Sirius caught quite many of 'm, but not as many as James did.

"And once again, I won." James said when they were back on the ground again "Can't you do _anything_?" he added teasingly.

Sirius thought for a moment.

"Actually, I can." with this, a grin spread over his face. "Let's play Shuntbumps."

James rolled his eyes.

"But- that's- for- kids, Padhead."

"No, it's not," Sirius said stubbornly.

"Yes, it is." James said even more stubbornly.

"They used to play it for professional."

"_Used_ to, yes. Not anymore. Now it's only played by kids."

"Well, if you think it's that easy, why not play it, hm?" Sirius said, raising a challenging eyebrow. "_I've_ got an injured arm. The advantage will be yours alone."

James rolled his eyes again, followed by a fake, heavy sigh.

"Alright, then. But only _one_ game, okay?"

"Fine with me." Sirius said, sounding almost cheerful. "I'll be merciful. We'll stop at twenty."  
James nodded and mounted his broom. Sirius did the same.  
"Let's see who'll be the loser now." he said, the grin still sticking to his face.

After a couple of minutes, Sirius had definitely won with a fair eighteen points. James had the leftover two points, but one of them was because he had pulled Sirius with him when Sirius had pushed James of his broom for at least the tenth time.

Sirius laughed.

"Say it Prongs. I'm the best."

"Okay… I'm the best." James said, smiling toothily.

"I meant me, Stagprick." Sirius muttered semi-offended.

James laughed.

"Never heard _that_ one before. And stop spitting."

"It's not me. It's that one over there." Sirius said looking up, pointing at a dark cloud that slowly moved in front of the sun, leaking thick drops of rain.

The boys flew to the ground and settled themselves under a large Oak, which kept them dry.

They ate their lunch and talked a bit.

"When I've finished school," Sirius said. "I'll buy a motorbike"

"You mean zee ower large vikes?" James said, his mouth full of sandwich.

Sirius nodded. "They're so extremely cool!"

"Hm," James swallowed. "I rather prefer a broom. At least they can fly."

Sirius took a gulp of his pumpkin juice.

"Well, motorbikes don't attract so much attention with the Muggles. And who said motorbikes can't fly?" He said grinning.

"Oh dear," James said, getting another two sandwiches out of the basket. "You will never be able to keep things for what they are. Chicken or egg?" James held the sandwiches in front of Sirius.

Sirius looked at the sandwiches. Then said:

"Egg, please."

They both snorted and laughed.

When they woke up the next day, it was already Wednesday. Quidditch World Cup day.

They had contacted Remus and Peter and had arranged that James would bring a tent for the four of them and that Peter's parents would sleep in their own tent.

When they were finished packing, they said goodbye to Mr and Mrs Potter and made their way to the cornfield nearby where they would be taking a portkey to the camp side. There would be other people traveling with that particular portkey, so when they arrived, there was already one family and another boy from James' village waiting. They were standing behind a tennis ball which they presumed was the portkey.

The boy informed them that apart from them, there was still one family to come, so they waited for them.

After a few minutes, a man and a woman with two boys came from behind a barn and walked over to the group. That meant they were complete and were ready to go. The man picked the ball up, checked his watch and informed them it would work in one minute.

They all took hold of the ball and after a while, Sirius felt a jerk behind his navel and within seconds, he stood, together with the others, on a path leading to the entrance of the camp side.

Very soon, James and Sirius spotted Peter with his parents. They greeted each other.

"Moony hasn't arrived yet?" Sirius asked, dropping his bag and the sack including the tent, onto the ground.

"No, not yet," Peter said. Then he looked past Sirius. "But he's-"

Remus, who had just arrived, walked up to them but gestured Peter not to say anything. Then he hid himself in the bushes.

"He's what?" Sirius repeated Peter, who suddenly stopped half way his sentence. He looked around, then back at Peter again.

"Oh-" Peter said quickly, trying to make something up.

"He- he said he'd be a bit later."

"Then," James replied, "we have to wait a little bit."

Remus left his bag in the bushes, picked a tree that stood nearby his friends and silently started to climb it.

"What time is it?" Sirius asked James.

James looked at his watch. But before Sirius received the answer, he heard something rustle above his head, got suddenly showered by leaves, felt someone jump on his back and felt it messing up his hair badly.

"Hey! NOT! THE! HAIR!" he said loudly, trying to shake Remus off his back.

Remus (who let go now), James and Peter laughed amused.

"Thanks for the ticket." Remus said laughing.

"Hmhm." Sirius said in a 'yeah-right' kind of way, fixing his hair. "Everybody always thinks Mr Lupin is such a nice and sweet guy, but actually you're a real big bastard, you know that!"

Remus was still laughing.

"No, really. Thank you for the ticket, Paddypoo."

Sirius playfully pushed Remus aside.

"Oh, you're welcome, _you big pile of shit!_"

"Peter?" Mrs Pettigrew said quietly, turning to her son. "Don't you think it'll be better if you sleep in _our_ tent?"

"No, mum." Peter complained. "I've already been sleeping in the same room with them for _five years_!"

"Don't worry, ma'am." Remus said politely. "In all these years, Sirius' rude behaviour never infected Peter in whatsoever."

"Alright then." Mrs Pettigrew said, as Remus received another playful push from Sirius' direction.

"Shall we go then?" Mr Pettigrew finally said.

They all nodded, got their bags and walked towards the ticket box where they would pay for their camping places. After Mr Pettigrew had paid, they made their way over the camp side.

After a ten minute walk past tents, restrooms and all kinds of people, they reached their reserved spots.

Because it was a Muggle campsite, they had to build the tents without magic. That was no problem for James and Sirius, for they had already done it once, when they camped in James' back garden two years ago. Though, when Mr and Mrs Pettigrew were finished with their tent, the boys were still busy with theirs, because James kept running after Peter, who kept nicking the herrings.

"Is this the last?" Sirius asked James who handed him a herring which he just nicked back from Peter.

James nodded, panting.  
Sirius slammed the last one in the ground with a hammer (oh, how he loved that). Then he observed the tent from a distance. He frowned.

"There's something missing." Sirius said, spotting a lopsided side. "Peter!"

"I don't have it. I swear!" Peter said giggly, as he walked over to Sirius.

"No," Sirius said. "I want you to hold that." he pointed at the hanging corner of cloth.

Peter did so.

"Like this?"

"A little higher. Perfect. Mr Potter!" Sirius motioned James to come and have a look.

James came standing next to Sirius.

"Wadda ya think?" Sirius asked semi-professionally, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"Perfect." James said determinately.

"Come on. Let's go inside." Sirius said.

"Hey! What about me?" Peter said, still holding the cloth up.

"Oh, you just stay there for three days." Sirius said very seriously.

"Oh, _very_ funny!" Peter said, pulling a face.

James, on the other hand, laughed his head off.

"I found your replacement, Peter." Remus said, coming from behind the tent. He carried the missing stick.

"It was still in the bag." he said to Sirius, handing Peter the stick. "Oh, and I found a stowaway… Yours?" Remus picked a green Iguana out of his neck, giving it to Sirius.

"Mayor!" Sirius said cheerfully, taking him over from Remus, stroking it and placing it on his shoulder. "Our little, green friend."

"Oh, sweet Merlin." James said unbelievingly. "You took him with you!"

"Of course." Sirius answered, as if it was a stupid question. "If your parents turn out to be such sissies like you, he'd starve to death." He explained, entering the tent.

James sighed and rolled his eyes.

'Crickets.' he mouthed to Remus, pulling a face.

Remus smiled as they followed Sirius inside.


	13. Chapter Thirteen::

:Chapter Thirteen:

"There are two rooms over there," James explained when they had entered the enchanted tent. "Only three people will fit in those rooms, so I suggest to just sleep here in the middle. We can move the beds."   
And so they did.

After bringing the bags into the tent and unpacking what needed to be unpacked, they went for a walk over the campsite. They met and greeted some people they knew from school. Remus went to talk to a girl from their year. While Peter was trying to stop a wasp from bothering him, James and Sirius tried to understand a little girl who was babbling in a weird language at them.  
"Hoe heten jullie? Waar komen jullie vandaan? Ik ben al vier. En jullie?"  
Sirius and James blinked and looked at the large, brown eyes of the foreign girl.  
"Er-" Sirius started, "I'm afraid we don't speak your language. Can't you speak English?"   
The girl just blinked and kept staring at them with those huge eyes.  
"Of course she doesn't." James said, placing an elbow in Sirius' ribs. "You don't understand a word we're saying, do you?"  
The little girl didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then she pointed at the tent on the other side of the path.   
"Mijn mama gaat straks broodjes kopen. Gaan jullie ook broodjes kopen?"  
"If… we could cope with broad oaks that have gone in July?" Sirius said slowly, raising an eyebrow.  
James snorted. Then he burst out laughing.  
"Wha'!" Sirius blurted out.  
"Sorry, hoor. Ze praat tegen iedereen." A woman who was undoubtedly the girl's mother, said to Sirius and James, taking hold of her daughter's hand.  
"Sorry?" Sirius said. Almost choking on laughter he shoved James aside.  
"Oh, you're English. I'm sorry about little Jessy here. I hope she didn't bother you?" The woman said kindly in English, with a funny accent.  
"Oh no," Sirius replied, "We had a very lovely conversation about - er - _trees_."  
Remus and Peter had joined them now.  
"Oh, heb je met die jonge Engelsman gepraat, Jessy?"  
The girl nodded, a wet finger, which just came out of her mouth, pointed at Sirius.  
"Hij wilt ook een broodje."  
The woman laughed and turned to the boys again.  
"She insisted me to give you a French roll too."   
"Well…" Sirius started, but Remus interrupted, gently leading Sirius away from the woman and the girl.  
"Don't feed him. He'll plunder your stock once he gets started."  
The woman laughed. "Kom Jessy, we gaan. Zeg maar doei tegen de jongens."  
"Dag!" The girl said, waving frantically.   
The woman said good bye and went off.  
"Bye." The four boys said and they walked further on.  
Sirius looked around at the little girl for one last time. Then he asked:  
"Was that German?"

The four friends had made their beds. It had suddenly started to rain and so they had gone back to the tent.  
James and Remus were playing chess at the moment; every move closely watched my Peter and Sirius.   
"Give it up, Moony." James said teasingly as his Knight threw Remus' last Rook off the board.  
"No," Remus replied, "I've still got a chance to win. I beg you. Don't ruin that happy thought." He smiled and made his last Knight make a move. "Check."   
James grinned. "If you want to make _any_ chance of winning, I advise you _not_ to listen to Sirius' advice."   
"Hey!" Sirius complained while the others sniggered. "It's not that I'm _that_ bad. You're just better. 'S all."   
(James made another move that made, which made his King crush Remus' Knight to the ground.)  
"Sirius, mate." James said, laying a friendly hand on Sirius' shoulder. "You should really try to learn that you shouldn't take me so seriously all the time. Well- I know your name's Si-"  
"_Don't_ make that joke! I _hate_ it when people do that!" Sirius broke him off, a warning expression on his face.  
"Oh, Sirius," Remus said kindly. "You would be so much more relaxed, if you just didn't 'bite in everything'. But… we know you can't."  
Remus made another move.  
"Oh no!" he said after making it. "Can I _please_ undo that one?" He looked at James with begging eyes.   
But James grinned broadly, then he shook his head.  
"Sorry. Rules are rules."  
Remus moaned complaining, when James made his move and mouthed; "Check mate."  
"I was _so_ close!" Remus said, removing his fringe out if his vision.  
"Well," James said cheerfully, "At least it was a good match. When I play with Sirius…" he said, eyeing Sirius amusingly.  
"Oh, _shut up_!"

Mr Pettigrew entered their tent.  
"Guys," he said, slapping his hands together. "It's almost dinner time, but we have no food. Some one - or two – will have to go to the little camping store to get food."  
"Dad!" Peter said, not believing his ears. "It's raining! _Very hard_!"  
"Well, your mother wanted to ask you when it was still dry, but you were already gone. Here's some Muggle money. Get yourselves something too." Then he left.  
Peter let out a moan.  
"Well…" he said. "Who volunteers?" and as expected, no one made the slightest gesture to go outside.  
Then Peter threw the money pouch at James, who automatically caught it.   
"Why don't you go?" Peter asked. "You're very… spontaneous."  
James shook his head.  
"No, I'm allergic to rain." he made up, throwing the bag back at Peter. "And besides, they're _your_ parents."  
Peter caught the pouch again.  
"Wait," he said. "Sirius, you go. You know how to pay with Muggle money." Peter said, throwing the pouch towards Sirius now.  
Sirius, however, didn't catch it but let it drop down next to him on the bed.  
"That's only a matter of counting, you know." He said rather bored.  
"You know what?" Remus said.  
"What? You're going?" James answered hopefully.   
"No, let's draw straws."

And so they did. They decided that two people would go.  
"Okay, ready?" Remus said, holding out four straws. "Pull."  
James, Peter and Sirius pulled each one straw out of Remus' hand.  
"Okay… look."  
They all showed their straws. James' and Peter's straws appeared to be the shortest, so they both let out a moan.   
"Have fun playing outside." Sirius said teasingly, a broad grin spreading across his face.  
"Thanks, Mr Casanova". James said sarcastically, an expression on his face far from cheerful.  
He and Peter wrapped cloaks around themselves and left the tent.  
"I hope it doesn't rain like this during the match. We won't see a thing!" James said, rain streaming down his face.  
"I bet it'll clear up later." Peter replied.  
"Yeah, and I bet, that in the time that happens, we'll already be back in the tent."   
Peter didn't know whether to laugh or not so he said:  
"Welcome to England."  
James smiled briskly. "Hey, would your dad mind if we would buy some snacks for tonight?"  
Peter shook his head. 

"Say, Moony."  
"Hm?"  
Sirius sat down next to Remus, who was making the puzzle in the Daily Prophet.  
"What is it with James?"  
Remus looked up from the paper. "What about him?"   
"Well- He keeps calling me 'Mr Casanova' and 'Womanizer' and stuff. Yeah, I know he used to do that for quite a long time," Sirius said, seeing the 'doesn't-he-always-?' expression on his friend's face.  
"But he does it an awfully lot these days." he added. "Do you by chance know _why_ he does that?"  
Remus frowned, folding the newspaper and laying it down next to him.   
"Well…" he started. "I'm not quite sure if it's wise to tell you."  
"What do you mean?" Sirius said a little offended. "Are you saying you guys have got a 'secret' you don't want to share with me?"  
"No more than you've got for us…" Remus said quietly, regretting he said it as soon as he had.  
Sirius frowned.  
"Wadda you mean by that?"  
Remus sighed.  
"Do you really want to know?"  
"_Yes_, I _really_ want to know!" Sirius said impatiently.  
"Well…" Remus started, thinking up a way of saying it as subtle as possible. "James wanted Peter to follow you… He saw you."  
Sirius kept his frown. "What do you mean 'he saw me'? Where?"  
Remus didn't say anything for a while.  
"In Diagon Alley… with the girl…" he said carefully.  
Sirius opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. Remus detected a curtain tension on Sirius' face. Then he smiled.  
"It's okay." he said. "It can happen to anyone."  
"What are you talking about?" Sirius said again, a lot more defensive than before.  
Remus smiled again.   
"You're in love." he said lightly.  
"I'm what! No way! No. I'm- It's-" as Sirius struggled to safe himself out of this, he felt for the first time in his life his cheeks began to glow a little.  
Remus laughed heartily.  
"Oh, Padfoot. Don't worry." he rested a hand on Sirius' shoulder, who still seemed to be looking for words to defend himself.  
"I mean," Remus continued, "It can happen to anyone of us. See here! Even the most handsome, most popular, toughest, I-don't-fall-in-love, I-don't-believe-in-girlfriends guy, has fallen in love."  
"I'm _not_ in love and she's definitely _not_ my girlfriend! You know I don't do such things." Sirius muttered.  
"I know. And I know _why_, but falling in love is a very natural thing. You _don't_ have to be ashamed of it, Sirius. I know who she is and _man_… _is she beautiful_! Don't you see? She _suits_ you. You're exactly the same. Outside _and_ inside. Good looks, bit haughty…" Remus said, giving Sirius an encouraging tap on the shoulder.  
"So," Remus continued. He didn't feel like letting Sirius know he knew already quite a lot about the girl. "What's her name?"  
"That'll be Nanya." Sirius muttered.  
"Nanya?" Remus replied.  
"Nanya business." Sirius muttered, even darkly this time.  
Remus sighed. "Nah, you're right. Sorry about that." he said softly.   
Sirius sighed heavily. Then it was quiet for quite a while.   
Sirius sighed again. Then said softly:  
"Her name's Cecile."  
Remus looked up. He was surprised and happy at the same time. 'He'll melt.' Remus thought. Then he said:  
"That's a nice name."  
"Actually," Sirius continued, still not looking at Remus. "It's Cecelia, but Cecile is easier."  
"Well, that's nice too. She's in the seventh year?" Remus asked carefully.  
"She will be, yeah."  
"What did you do with her?" Remus dared to ask.  
"We went for a drink." Sirius said very clearly.  
Remus narrowed his eyes, knowing that Sirius did more amusing things with pretty girls apart from having a drink with them... "Really?"  
"Yes, Moony. Just a drink."  
And again there was a short pause.  
Sirius finally looked up at Remus' friendly smiling face.  
"You won't tell James or Peter, will you?"  
"Do I ever?" The warm expression on Remus' face relaxed Sirius a bit.  
"And besides," Remus added. "What's there to tell if you're not in love…?"  
Sirius just smiled wearily.  
"I gotta go to the loo." He said as he stood up.   
Remus hesitated but really felt the urge to know.  
"But you _did_ kiss her… Why?"  
Sirius stopped.  
"I didn't-"   
"Sirius. You're doing it again." Remus said, wearing a way more concerned look on his face.  
Sirius sighed.  
"Okay, I did kiss her. But once has to be the first time." then he continued his way to the washroom. He walked in and closed the door. Then he opened it again.  
"And I'm _not_ in love!" he said and closed the door again.  
Remus laughed and said:  
"Of course you're not."  
But he knew his friend too well to just believe his words.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dearest reader,

For you probably have noticed, the little girl named Jessy speaks in my own language; Dutch. I'll translate what she and her mother say, so you know anyway.

You see, for my Dutch readers, it's no problem whatswhoever.

… James and Sirius tried to understand a little girl who was babbling in a weird language at them.  
"Who are you? Where do you come from? I'm already four. And you?"  
Sirius and James blinked and looked at the large, brown eyes of the foreign girl.  
"Er-" Sirius started, "I'm afraid we don't speak your language. Can't you speak English?"  
The girl just blinked and kept staring at them with those huge eyes.  
"Of course she doesn't." James said, placing an elbow in Sirius' ribs. "You don't understand a word we're saying, do you?"  
The little girl didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then she pointed at the tent on the other side of the path.  
"My mummy is going to buy frenchrolls. Are you going to buy Frenchrolls too?"  
"If… we could cope with broad oaks that have gone in July?" Sirius said slowly, raising an eyebrow.  
James snorted. Then he burst out laughing.  
"Wha'!" Sirius blurted out.  
"I'm really sorry. She talks to everybody." A woman who was undoubtedly the girl's mother, said to Sirius and James, taking hold of her daughter's hand.   
"Sorry?" Sirius said. Almost choking on laughter he shoved James aside.  
"Oh, you're English. I'm sorry about little Jessy here. I hope she didn't bother you?" The woman said kindly in English, with a funny accent.  
"Oh no," Sirius replied, "We had a very lovely conversation about - er - _trees_."  
Remus and Peter had joined them now.  
"Oh, did you have a nice chat with this young Englishman, Jessy?"  
The girl nodded, a wet finger, which just came out of her mouth, pointed at Sirius.  
"He wants a Frenchroll too."  
The woman laughed and turned to the boys again.  
"She insisted me to give you a French roll too."   
"Well…" Sirius started, but Remus interrupted, gently leading Sirius away from the woman and the girl.  
"Don't feed him. He'll plunder your stock once he gets started."  
The woman laughed. "Come, Jessy, we're going. Say buy to these boys."   
"Bye!" The girl said, waving frantically.  
The woman said good bye and went off.  
"Bye." The four boys said and they walked further on.  
Sirius looked around at the little girl for one last time. Then he asked:  
"Was that German?"


	14. Chapter Fourteen::

:Chapter Fourteen:

Remus had settled himself in front of the entrance of the tent. He hummed something while looking outside at the rain that was still pouring down.

"'Choo singing?" Sirius asked, sitting down next to his friend, laying Mayor Muggle on his lap.

Remus smiles dreamily. "Oh, nothing in particular."

"Hm." Sirius replied, more interested in the red can, shaped as a Muggle post-box which he opened. "Toffee?"

"How much was it again?" James mouthed towards Peter as they placed the groceries on the moving, rubber band that led the food towards the counter.  
"I don't remember. We'll see. Look, it shows on the little thingy how much you have to pay." Peter said, pointing at the display sticking out of the cash, which showed the costs of the stuff from the lady in front of them.  
"Oh, right." James said, already taking the pouch out of his rain-soaked pocket.  
They followed the groceries all the way down, looking at it with fascination, until they were snapped out of it by the woman behind the counter. She looked a bit grumpy and her overly-bleached hair and the fact that she was chewing gum with her mouth open, didn't make her look any prettier.  
"That's ₤10,50." She said on a bored tone.  
James started to place some coins on the counter, trying to find out how on earth he was going to give her ₤10,50 out of all these confusing pounds.  
"What's this?" Peter muttered, as they both started turning over the coins to check their value. The lady behind the counter let out a exaggerated heavy sigh as she watched the two boys struggling with the money. After at least one whole minute, she sighed again and reached over the counter and into the pouch James was still holding, and fished out a ₤10,- bill. She took another fifty pence from all the coins spread over the counter. As she continued chewing very disgustingly, she gave James an annoyed and arrogant look.  
Peter thought they'd better leave, took the pouch from James and hastily started putting the coins back in. All the time, the woman was still being disgusting towards James.  
James thought he was being treated very unfriendly.  
"You know, you could try and be nice to your costumers." he said, trying to sound polite.  
"Yeah, and you could have tried to finish school before your 13th. Would have made you able to count properly." she replied _very_ unfriendly. The people standing behind James and Peter noticed this too and made hissing noises in disapprove.  
"I'm sixteen." James replied, still looking at her.

"Let's go, Prongs." Peter suggested nervously, hastily stewing the groceries into a plastic bag.  
"Yeah, you'd better take him back to kinder garden." the cashier said, turning to Peter.  
James felt insulted and he didn't _like_ to be insulted. That was typically something he and Sirius really had in common. Revenge was sweet in their eyes. He just couldn't resist…  
"At least my hair doesn't look like molded cotton candy!"

The people behind James actually snorted and laughed, as the cashier got livid and picked up a receiver to call her boss. But Peter pulled James with him, laughing himself too.  
As they struggled out of the shop, people started applauding. James walked back in, bowed a few times, until he caught eye with the cashier and was outside again in less than one second.

"Thank you," Remus said, taking a gold wrapped toffee out of the can.

Sirius took one himself too and stroke Mayor Muggle.

Remus softly started to sing something…

"It's raining rain…"  
"Hallelujah," Sirius said, sounding a bit bored.

"And Prongs and Worm are getting wet, wet, wet…" Remus sang on, improvising at the very moment he sang it.

Sirius smiled. He was going to play along.

"How wet?"

"Very wet!" Remus sang through silent laughter.

"Very, very wet?" Sirius asked.

"You bet!" Remus added as final touch.  
They both laughed and by the time Peter and James had returned, Remus and Sirius had made a song out of it. To James's and Peter's great annoyance, they kept singing and humming it, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

When the four boys went to Peter's parent's tent for dinner, the rain was already declining. They ate soup, French beans and steak.

When James complained about his shoes still being wet, Sirius couldn't resist the temptation of silently starting to sing the song again, eyeing amused into James's direction.

"Shut up, you!" James said scowling, throwing a bean at Sirius.

Sirius laughed and ducked, but the bean didn't miss and hit him in the eye. Sirius immediately threw one back at James.

Mrs Pettigrew shot a disapproving look at Peter.

"Er- guys…" he said carefully. "D- don't play with your food…"

They stopped, though James threw one more back into Sirius's soup.

When they were finished eating, they cleaned everything away and got ready to leave for the match. The boys were very excited and were very pleased that it had stopped raining.

Soon they were on their way to the stadium. The camp side was pretty large, so it took them at least fifteen minutes to get there. On their way, they spotted some people from school and had some nice chats. James and Peter told Remus and Sirius what happened at the shop. They laughed and Sirius said they should have brought him with 'm. But then James reminded him that he didn't want to come because if a bit of rain.

"Remember!" James added, grumpily.

Sirius just flashed him a toothy grin.

As they walked through a little bit of forest, Sirius was fooling around with James and Remus and Peter were having a conversation with Mr and Mrs Pettigrew.

As Sirius and James were looking at the people joining the stream from other parts of the camp side, James spotted something familiar.

"Hey, is that-"

Remus looked up too and spotted some tartan.  
"Must be!"

"What?" Peter squeaked.

Sirius looked up lazily.

"Hm?"

"It's McGon- Professor McGonagall." Remus said, following the tartan.

It was then that Sirius spotted Professor McGonagall's hat.

"Oh, jolly. More security." he muttered back.

It was then that Professor McGonagall looked around.

"Hi professor," both James and Sirius said sweetly.

McGonagall groaned and smiled in her particular kind of way; "Oh, hello, gentlemen."

"'Evening, Professor."Remus said.

Minerva shook hands with Peter's parents.

"So, Professor, who do you support tonight? England or Japan?" Remus asked.

Minerva raised an eyebrow.

"I was hoping Scotland would make it to the finals, but I suppose I'll have to cheer for England tonight, the bastards." she said, an innocent expression on her face.

"Hey, hey, hey! Nothing against England, alright! Their seeker comes from London." Sirius protested, looking at his Professor with a semi-offended expression on his face.

Minerva smirked thin-lippedly.

"I don't care where he comes from. Fact is, the English are the worst colonialists in the history of colonialisation. Us Scots don't easily forget those kind of things. But," she sighed.

"As long as they play a good game, I suppose there's no harm in supporting England."

"'Course not!" James said fanatically.

"So," Minerva said, poking James with her stare, "I suppose you'll be wanting to join a Quidditch team after Hogwarts?"

"Would love to." James replied, clearly drooling over the idea.

"Sorry, James, lad. That's only for good players." Sirius said teasingly, avoiding a hair-up-messing hand.

Minerva actually snorted.

"Yes, I suppose Mr Black is right, Mr Potter, no need to physically harm someone for their opinion..."

Remus looked up at Minerva, in a state of awe. Then he said;

"Say, Professor, Sirius wondered where you'll be staying and if you had someone to watch the game with..."

Sirius couldn't believe his ears.

"Moony! Shu' up, will ya!"

"If you insist, Mr Black, I must say I won't be displeased to watch the match with such ardent supporters." Minerva said.

"I never _said_ that!" Sirius started. "He was lying. But if you insist... You've got food with you?"

Mrs Pettigrew, clearly disapproving Sirius' inappropriate behaviour towards an adult, glared at him. Minerva, on the other hand, smiled with pursed lips but couldn't suppress some nosy laughter.

"I bet you never did, Mr Black. I'd be thoroughly honoured if you would allow me to sit with you and your friends for the duration of the game."

That's when she held up a tartan bag.

"I have a supply of haggis, havermouth biscuits, ginger ale, grog, pork pie, liquorice wands and chocolate cake. Will that do?"

Sirius flashed a dazzling smile.

"I wouldn't mind sitting with you either, Professor!" he said, shooting a glance at the bag and smiling too friendly to be realistic.

"Did you really say chocolate cake?" Remus said, eyes twinkling.

"Yo, Sirius." James said, drawing Sirius's attention back to him.

"What?" Sirius replied, looking at James who appeared to have picked up a stick.

James threw the stick on front of them.

"Fetch it, boy!"

"Oh, HA. HA! Funny! Fetch this!" Sirius said sarcastically, pushing James aside.

James lost his balance and fell flat faced into the bushes.

Minerva failed to suppress a bout of giggles but tried to turn her face stern again.

"Gentlemen!" she said.

Remus helped James out of the elder-bushes.

"It's your own fault, mate..."he said, smiling broadly.

James got up by Remus's help, letting out a "HMF!"

As soon as James stood again, Sirius had taken a run, laughing his head off. James ran after him.

Sirius stayed ahead of James, until he was stopped by a security wizard, because he had reached the stadium.

"Ticket, please." the heavily moustaged security guy asked Sirius.

'_Oh, shit!_' Sirius thought, seeing James catch up with him. James soon reached Sirius, jumped on his back and flung his arms around Sirius's neck; almost choking him.

When the others arrived at the entrance too, James had already jumped off of Sirius's back, who was now making sure his hair got into model again.

"Anyway. tickets."

After Mr Pettigrew had handed over the tickets, they had to walk up a small stairs into the stands.

After ten minutes, they had found their seats and looked around in awe. The arena was huge. Hundreds and hundreds of people filed into their seats, filling the stands from top to bottom. The field was larger than Hogwart's Quidditch pitch and the six goals, which stood on either sides of the pitch, were higher too.

After a fifteen minute wait, it all started.

As always, both the teams had brought their own boast-mascots. The Japanese team had brought at least a hundred Kappa's, strained by witches on brooms. They did some silly tricks. After they had left, the English team showed off by taking Kelpies into the stand, all in the form of horses, which had be removes quickly, because some kids had started climbing out of the stands, to pet the dangerous creatures.

After all this, the teams were announced into the stage, by a commentary, who was a curvy looking witch in a purple dress on the other side of the stands.

"And first! Our own English team!" (the stage erupted with applause and shouts) "With Chasers Matthew Underhay, Chelsea Whitgift and Elfie Zeal! Followed by their Beater team-mates Kay Tracey and Scott Toller! And here's our marvellous Seeker Gabriel Wigram and last but not least! Keeper Anora Torres! Give them a great applause!"

And again the stands thundered with cheers.

"And now!" the purple-dressed witch said, "for the first time ever in the finals… Japan!"

And as the Japanese top Quidditch players entered the stage, the Japanese crowd roared with supports.

"In the lead, Keeper Watanabe Hibiki, followed by Chasers Tanaka Bunmai, Takahashi Machi and Sato Kaori! Behind them their Beaters, Saito Makishi and Ito Ryuugo! And finally, Nakamura Haruo! Their Seeker. Nakamura has only been playing professional for one year and already made it into the finals! Let's wish them luck and plaaay!"

They all took positions, waited till the Quaffle was released and the start sign to be fired. One second, and the game was off.

"And they're off! Quaffle caught by Takahashi from Japan. Nicely played towards Tanaka… Oh! Almost hit by a Bludger. Already!

Quaffle still in possession of Tanaka. He's heading for the goal… avoids Underhay with a nice backflip. He throws- and it's shot right back into the pitch by an excellent move of Torres."

"Nice one!" James said fanatically as the Japanese crowd buzzed with _Aaah's_.

"-Quaffle caught by Whitgift. Passed on to Underhay. Throws it back to Whitgift, but it gets take by Takahashi, who plays it over to Sato. Sato is heading for the goalposts! Oeh! Ito is just in time to block the Bludger Tracey just sent off-

Sato is getting closer- Torres is alert- Sato is confusing her. She has to choose- Wrong way! She lets Sato score! That makes it 10 – 00 for Japan!"

The whole Japanese crowd exploded with roars, screams and applause as the scoreboard changed and the Japanese team did a victory dance in the air.

"Aah. Just bad luck." Remus said. "England is well trained and made it into the finals. Why won't they win from Japan too?"

"You're right." Sirius said. "Those Japanese can't even talk properly. Let alone play Quidditch."

James laughed.

"But they did make it to the final too, Mr Black." Minerva said calmly.

Sirius looked around at her.

"That's…"

She glared at him with a look on her face which told Sirius she expected an explanation. None came.

"On who's side are you anyway!"

She curled her lip into a little smirk.

"Scotland."

Sirius turned towards the game again, throwing his arms into the air, muttering.

"They're not even playin'!"

In the following thirty minutes Japan scored another point. But when England made their first score after another ten minutes, it was clear there were more English fans then Japanese, for the Japanese 'boohs' were hardly audible because of the stadium-shaking roars of cheers from the English supporters. Within three minutes they made their second score.

"And that fantastic Porskoff Ploy, makes it twenty, twenty. Oh, isn't it exciting? And the Quaffle is in possession of Japan again. He's heading for the other side of the pitch- ouch!

A Bludger, coming from the Tracey hitting Sato right in the stomach! She's shouting something… It sounds like… 'baka', Merlin knows what that means.

The Quaffle is now taken by England again in possession of Underhay. Oh! And suddenly the Seekers are active! Without a doubt they've spotted the Snitch. Wigram from England is ahead of Nakamura from Japan. OUCH! And another Bludger from the English team. Bloody hell, those English Beaters are like raging bullets!

Nakamura fell behind, but it seems that Wigram lost the Snitch anyway. In the mean while Japan tried to score, but missed."

In the following thirty minutes, both Japan and England scored which made the score 30/30.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Peter said, seeing the Quaffle in possession of the Japanese team again.

"Let's just hope they'll catch the Snitch soon." James said, also sounding a bit worried.

"I'm positively sure they will win. Anyone fancy a toffee?" Sirius let the bag go around, as they all started praying for England.

Within ten minutes, Japan had scored one more and England two, what made the score 50/40 for England. England's sixth goal, after a difficult throw from Zeal past the Japanese keeper Watanabe, brought hope back to the boys.

The tension was rising as the Japanese team were getting rougher, fully aware of the fact they were behind.

"The seeker's are active again!" Remus said, right before the commentator did.

"Mind the seekers ya'all. The little, golden Snitch is clearly visible in the sunlight. He's _really_ fast! Still the Seekers keep up with it. Oh, almost a crash, there. Nakamura is close to it while Wigram is fighting for that position. Wow! Fantastic move around the hoop! Saito fires a Bludger towards Wigram, will Toller make it? And yes, he's just about to hit it right back at Saito. He avoids it.

And both seekers have landed on the other side of the pitch. This Snitch loves hoops! Look how difficult he's making it for these two fantastic Seekers. Wigram bumps Nakamura out of the way and gets almost on top of it. OUCH! A Bludger he didn't see! It hit him in the side of his face and falls back- Nakamura takes his chance and continues his hunt after the Snitch- he stretches out his arm- the English beater Toller tries a desperate attempt to fire a Bludger- Nakamura avoids it- he makes a grab-"

On the moment the Japanese Seeker slowed down and put his hand, clutching the Snitch, into the air, the arena exploded with roaring Japanese applause and praise.

Japan had won.

The four boys, who had been standing to follow the Seekers's chase, fell back in their seats, great disappointment showing on their faces. Except for James. He just slowly turned around.

"I can't believe it." he said softly, then he stared at Sirius. "How's this possible… tell me Padfoot…"

Sirius just shook his head , jealously looking at the overly happy Japanese crowd.

Mr Pettigrew leaned forwards to their seats.

"But it _was_ a good match."

"It was a good match, indeed." Minerva added.

"And," Remus started "They _were_ ahead. If that Bludger hadn't hit Wigram, I'm sure he'd had caught it."

"Of course he would've." Sirius added a bit haughtily.

"For Merlin's sake, Mr Black," Minerva started, "Coming from London doesn't make one superior!"

"Yes, it does." He answered stubbornly.

"Doesn't." she said silently.

Sirius didn't hear it, but Remus did and snorted.

When they headed back to the tents, they passed loads of happy, sad and still excited faces. All the conversations were about the match and when they passed the area where the Japanese flags towered above the hundreds of tents, it was clear there was a huge party going on.

"You like Quidditch that much, Mr Black?" Minerva said, when their tent came into sight.

"I like watching, yeah. Why?" Sirius answered.

"You didn't even eat anything." She replied amused.

"When I asked about the food, I was just kidding, _Professor_." Sirius said, turning to her.

"Hm. I wasn't. I _am_ carrying all this food with me." Minerva heaved the bag over her shoulder to show him.

"Will you be leaving early tomorrow, Professor." Remus asked.

"I was not planning to. Why do you ask, Mr Lupin?"

"Well," Remus started, "if you think it a nice idea and Mr and Mrs Pettigrew here agree too, we could have a picnic tomorrow and eat your stuff."

She smiled.

"I'd love to." she said turning to Peter's parents. "If you agree on that idea, of course."

"We're in no hurry, so… sure." Mrs Pettigrew said. "Shall we meet here one o' clock, tomorrow?"

"One o'clock'll be fine. Then I wish you all goodnight." Minerva said, while they got to the boys and Peter's parents tents and she went to her own.

The boys and Peter's parents split up too and went into their tents.

After Sirius and James both had taken a shower, they all changed into their pyjama's and climbed into their beds. Of course they didn't fall asleep right away. They talked about the match and enjoyed themselves eating Sirius's toffees. James and Sirius even went on till past three o'clock.


	15. Chapter Fifteen::

:Chapter Fifteen:

"Wake u-hup." Peter said as he shake James awake.

"Hmrf…" was the only thing he got in reply.

"It's ten to one, James." Peter let him know, sitting down on the bed, making it shake heavily. "McGonagall can be here any minute."

"Even Sirius is already out of bed." Remus added. "You don't want to welcome her in your shorts, now do you?"

James turned around and grinned at Remus.

"Would she mind?" he said playfully.

Remus sighed. "I bet she won't. But she'll be forever traumatized if she sees your hair like that."

"Hmrf." James said again, burying his face into the pillow.

"You should be finished in exactly seven minutes." Peter said, checking his watch.

James mumbled something.

"We don't understand you when you talk into the pillow, Prongs." Remus said on a singsong way, taking a comb through his hair.

James lifted his face out of the pillow and said: "But I still have to take a shower."

"For Merlin's sake, James. You've take a shower _nine_ hours ago." Remus said, still not able to understand James's mind in some situations.

"If you'd just fixed your hair and gotten dressed, instead of lying in your bed and having this useless convy, you would have been finished by now." he added sweetly. "It's not dinner with the Queen. It's _just_ a picnic with your Professor Transfiguration. Now get your lazy arse out of that bed."

James produced another complaining sound, but sat up, yawned, scratched his head and went into the bathroom.

Sirius, who was in there too, was busy getting dressed.

"Good morning, sunshine." Sirius said, seeing sleepy James walk in.

"Morning," James muttered, turning the tap open and placing his hands under it.

"Could you move please? King coming through." Sirius said, pushing James playfully aside.

James, however, was just about to throw a hand full of cold water in his face, which now landed all over his bare chest.

"Ah! Bloody hell, that's cold!" he said, pushing Sirius back.

Sirius laughed and splattered some more water over James, who, in his turn did the same to Sirius. It quickly turned into a proper water fight.

The door opened and Remus appeared into the opening.

"She's he-" he stopped and sighed hopelessly, seeing his best friends - who had from the beginning always had been a bit too childish – being soaking wet and laughing joyfully.

"If the two kids are finished playing," Remus said sweetly, "I'd kindly request them to hurry. She's already here."

"But I have to change clothes." Sirius said.

"That'll dry in the sun." he replied with a smile and left.

By the time James had gotten dressed and he and Sirius had fixed their hair, it was already a quarter past one. When they got outside, the others were all waiting but both Minerva and Remus laughed because of the angelic faces James and Sirius pulled.

"Come on. Let's go." Mr Pettigrew suggested.

And they went off.

They settled themselves on a field usually used by Muggles to play volleyball, but the net was broken, so no one was there to use it.

Peter's parents had brought some stuff too, so they had a lovely brunch in the sun.

"So how's our Peter doing at school, Professor McGonagall?" Mrs Pettigrew asked.

"Mu-hum!" Peter said through gritted teeth, his face turning red.

"Just fine, ma'am." Minerva replied. "And if he has any problems with his homework, he gets all the help these gentlemen – she nudged towards Remus, Sirius and James – can give him. Though he does sometimes seem to take _too_ much advice from his friends. This time her eyes only rested on Sirius and James.

Mrs Pettigrew shot a look at Remus, who had just said the other day Peter wasn't effected by Sirius and James's behaviour at all. But Remus seemed to have spotted a bird in a tree, which he seemed to find _very_ interesting indeed.

"Don't worry, Mrs Pettigrew," Minerva continued. "Mr Lupin is keeping an eye on them. Peter will graduate without any extreme difficulties next year."

This seemed to relax Mrs Pettigrew a bit.

"If he's any trouble, I trust you will inform us right away." Mr Pettigrew added.

Minerva smiled. "I promise I will, though it's really not necessary. He's a good boy that does his best."

"So, anyone feel for a tangerine?" James said, opening the net.

Peter praised James into the heavens for changing the subject.

When they were finished eating, they just lounged on the brightly sunlit lawn. Remus made some new friendships with some squirrels, by giving them some toast, while Peter, James and Sirius were playing some silly hide and seek game in the woods.

Minerva was having a pleasant conversation with Mr and Mrs Pettigrew about Hogwarts and it's teachers and students., while sometimes casting satisfied looks at Remus, while she heard the other boys, running laughing and shouting through the woods.

Around five o'clock they decided to call it a day and packed. Minerva left and Peter's parents and the four friends themselves broke down the tents. Everything was finished around seven o'clock.

"What time will our Portkey be put in order?" James asked, zipping the sack of the tent close.

"Let's see," Mr Pettigrew said, reaching into his pocket. He took out a map which showed the times of the Portkeys towards the direction which it was pictured on.

"Where do you have to go?"

James walked over to him and pointed out where he and Sirius had to go.

"Okay… you should be there in ten minutes. What about yours, Remus."

"Mine goes at half past eight. I already checked." Remus said.

"Ours at a quarter to eight. Let's go, or else you'll miss it." he said to James and Sirius.

They nodded and they all left for the Portkey Activation Section. Peter had asked Sirius if he could carry Mayor Muggle and so he happily walked a long with Mayor Muggle curled around his neck.

When they arrived at the spot where they had to be, they had to say good bye.

"Thank you once again, Mr and Mrs Pettigrew," James said politely. "I had a great time."

"You're welcome." they both answered.

"You too, Worm."

"That's alright." Peter said.

"Can I have my Muggle back?" Sirius asked.

Peter laughed because of the silly sentence and handed the iguana back to Sirius, who placed him on the tent sack.

"See ya all," Sirius said. "Bye Mr and Mrs Pettigrew."

"Bye Sirius."

"See you at school!"

James and Sirius walked over to the group of people they'd also arrived with, though one family was missing. (they had probably left yesterday)

They waved and took hold of the purple umbrella, being used for a Portkey. Within minute they were gone.

Remus noticed a tension falling off Mrs Pettigrew's face, who was apparently very relieved the boys had left.

"Maybe," Mr Pettigrew started, "we could go and have a drink at the camping restaurant. Remus's leaves in one hour."

And so they went to have a drink. When they had arrived at the Portkey Activation Section again, Mrs Pettigrew took Remus aside for a minute.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked, as he was taken away from his friend.

Mrs Pettigrew finally stopped and turned to him.

"I heard from your Professor – and I noticed myself- that you are a reasonable person, Remus…" she started.

Remus blushed.

"Why, thank you ma'am."

"I would kindly ask you to let Peter hang around more than with James and Sirius. As you have noticed, I don't think their rash behaviour is any good to Peter."

Remus thought for a moment.

"After so many years, I don't even notice it anymore," he lied "but I must admit, they do have their moments of utter rashness." Remus said, trying to make it sound as if they weren't that bad at all.

Mrs Pettigrew sighed, putting a string of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"It's just that Peter told us all these great stories about all of you, but the others appeared to be a bit different then he had told us. I'm sure they're really nice… as friends… but Peter needs a guide-"

Remus smiled friendly.

"Professor McGonagall already gave me the job of looking after all of them."

"Then I hope you'll succeed your mission." She said friendly, ending the conversation.

"I'll do my best." Remus promised, as they walked back to Peter and his father.

When Remus had said good bye and left, Peter and his parents waited for fifteen more minutes and went home too.


	16. Chapter Sixteen::

:Chapter Sixteen:

"We're home!" James said loudly as they entered the house through the backdoor. But he got no reply.

"Wait," Sirius said, "There's a note on the door."

He pulled a piece of parchment from the door, read it and gave it to James who read it too.

_Dear James & Sirius,_

_We're out for dinner. I didn't know what time you'd be back, but at least now you know where we are._

_See you tonight._

_Kisses,_

_Mum and Dad_

"Hm," James said, laying the letter on the dresser. "Let's hope there's something to eat. I'm starving."

James closed a cupboard.

"Nope," he said. "Nothing to eat."

"We're doomed." Sirius finally said.

They had searched the whole house for something to eat, but they didn't find anything. James opened a final cupboard and the only thing he took out, was a tin with raw corn in it.

"Tuck in." James said sarcastically, placing the tin on the dresser.

Sirius flopped down into the chair standing behind him. "Now what?"

"Wait," James said. "We can cook them."

"Then what?"

"Well, then at least we have something to eat."

"I don't like cooked vegetables." Sirius answered on a bored kind of way. "Gets all soggy."

"You have any other suggestions?" James asked, leaning against the dresser while brushing a hand through his untidy hair.

Sirius shrugged. There was a silent pause.

"What will happen if we _bake_ them?" Sirius finally said.

"Dunno," James replied. "Shall we try?"

Sirius got up and started searching for a pan. Once he found one, he placed it on the cooker.

"Okay. Er- do you have butter?"

James reached into an open cupboard and took out a hump of butter.

"There you go."

"Thanks." Sirius said, while grabbing a knife from the dresser. He slit it into the butter.

"Watch it- " James said suddenly, bumping into Sirius on purpose.

"Jerk." Sirius laughed, as he took the now way too big piece of butter off the wrapper and placed it into the pan.

James lit the fire on the cooker and the hump of butter began to melt immediately, spreading a strong smell of warm butter around the kitchen. Sirius made a dog-like moan.

"Sweet Merlin, that smells so good. Especially when you place a raw piece of steak-"

"Yeah, yeah, Mr I-come-over-a-piece-of-steak. Let's get on with it, shall we?" James replied.

Sirius scowled at James but picked the tin can from the dresser and emptied it in the hot, bubbling butter. They looked at it for a while, but it didn't do much.

"I've got to go to the loo," James said, turning his around. "I'll be right-"

Plop.

Something hit him against the back of the head. He turned around.

"What was-"

Plop.

This time it was Sirius that got hit.

Plop. Plop.

"Duck! It's the corn!" Sirius said, laughing. "It's bloody popping!"

Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop.

Popped corn was flying all around the kitchen now, as the two friends tried to avoid them, both laughing their heads off.

"Ouch! They're hot!" James said, screwing up his face as a popped corn hit his eye.

"D'oh, fruitcake." Sirius said laughing. "Where's that bloody lit!"

"It's in the- OUCH!" James got one _in_ his eye now, "In the cupboard- oh shut _up_!"

Sirius had to lean against a chair to keep standing now. He was laughing so hard, but within seconds, he got one popped in the face too, which made them both laugh harder than ever.

"Doesn't taste that bad." Sirius said, picking a popped corn from the dresser and eating it.

It had taken at least ten minutes for all the corn to pop and now the kitchen was finally safe again.

"Hm…" James replied, chewing on one too. "A bit lame, but at least its eatable."

"We could just get all the ones that hasn't popped to the floor, put some sugar over it and eat 'm." Sirius suggested, picking a bowl from a shelf.

"Alright. I'll clean the floor, then." James said. "But first I'm going to the loo!"

When James had returned, he cleaned the floor and when the kitchen was all shiny again, he and Sirius went upstairs to his room to eat their new invention. They had left Mayor Muggle downstairs to let him clean the floor from rests.

After fifteen minutes, they heard something downstairs which meant James's parents were back home. Within a minute there was a knock in the door.

"Yeah?" James said.

The door opened and Mrs Potter stepped in.

"Hey, guys. We're home again. How was it?"

"Oh, it was great!" Sirius started.

"Really awesome!" James added.

James's mother smiled.

"Too bad we lost. But I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves anyway."

"Yeah, but we didn't enjoy coming home, mum. There was no food in the house, whatswhoever!"

"I know! Sorry about that. Oh, and talking about homes…" she turned to Sirius. "Sirius, could I have a word with you?"

Sirius first looked at James with a puzzled look on his face. James shrugged. The Sirius turned to Mrs Potter again and stood up.

"Yeah… sure…"

Mrs Potter stepped aside, letting Sirius through the door and closed it.

Mr Potter was apparently waiting for them, because he was upstairs too.

Sirius felt a bit uneasy, not knowing what was going on. He couldn't remember doing anything wrong. Well, not since they returned from the Tournament, that is. Was it the corn? Wasn't the kitchen cleaned properly?

He had his hands in his pockets, fully aware he was scared to death to be told off by these nice people. To his great relieve Mrs Potter smiled.

"Relax, dear. You've done nothing wrong, if that's what you're thinking."

"Then… what is it?" he said a bit curiously.

Mrs Potter laughed.

"That sounds like you never really had a decent conversation with anyone, unless you did something wrong."

Sirius smiled wearily. "No… I haven't." he said rather quietly.

Mrs Potter sighed and looked at her husband.

"Sirius," Mr Potter said. "We've been talking. A lot. About your parents," – Sirius twitched at the mentioning of them – "your home situation, your school results… About your behaviour…"

'I knew it. This _is _ about my behaviour.' Sirius thought.

Mrs Potter spoke.

"We know you and James are best of friends and get along more than well. And all though we are fully aware of you being a little ahead of your age and like to disturb everything that's too quiet according to you, we like you very much too."

Sirius had really no idea what this was leading to.

"So," Mrs Potter continued, "We've got you something."

Sirius looked at their hands... which were empty.

"What is it?" he asked.

Mrs Potter smiled again and walked to the other side of the landing. Mr Potter and Sirius followed.

Mrs Potter held her hand on the handle of the spare room but didn't open it.

She made sure Sirius was standing next to her. Then she opened the door.

"Welcome to the family."

First Sirius looked at her, frowning. Then he looked into the spare room. Well, the room that previously was a spare room.

The white walls were now painted deep, dark shades of blue and all Sirius's precious stuff and belongings were neatly placed into the room with a new cage for Colonel Snobby in the windowsill.

He stared at it for some time.

"You mean-" he turned to Mr and Mrs Potter, "That I can _stay_ here!" he said disbelievingly.

They both smiled warmly and nodded.

"Th- thanks…"

"That was the least we could do, Sirius." Mr Potter said.

"No, really… this means the world to me." Sirius said, surprised by his own openness.

"Well, everyone would have wished you a better place. We can give it to you." Mrs Potter said softly.

Sirius smiled weakly, followed by a long silence.

"Well," Mr Potter finally said, "We'll leave you to your room, then."

He gave the still quite paralyzed Sirius a tap on the shoulder and descended the stairs.

"Oh," Mrs Potter said. "Could you ask James to come down stairs in half an hour for tea?"

"Yeah… sure."

"That's for you too, of course." She smiled and followed her husband downstairs.

Sirius sighed heavily and took a careful step into the room as though it was sacred ground. He slowly closed the door and looked around again. Mayor Muggle was resting in a new terrarium on the desk. They must have secretly taken him upstairs five minutes ago. Sirius took him out and placed him on his shoulder.

"This is much better than that rotten, old hovel, isn't it?" he said quietly to his green friend.

He sat down on the bed. It was only then, that he noticed the little note lying on his pillow. It was a little list of house rules and a sweet, welcome word.

_Dear Sirius,_

_We hope you'll feel at home (though we bet you will) and that from now on you will be able to see us as sort of parents now._

_Love,_

_Mr & Mrs Potter_

He lay the letter aside and observed his new room.

He heard footsteps on the other side of the door. It swung open and James appeared in the opening.

"What's going-" he looked around, wide eyed, and then at Sirius. "…on…"

"I guess you're stuck with me forever now, Prongs…" Sirius said softly.

James didn't say anything. He just stood there… And smiled.

**END**


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